McMoRan Davy Jones Gas Discovery

McMoRan Exploration Company has made a significant discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico that may contain 2-6 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas reserves. The well was drilled in 20 ft of water 10 miles south of the Louisiana coast on South Timbalier Block 168 (Figure 1). The discovery by McMoRan (operator) and partners Plains Exploration & Production Company and Nippon Oil Corporation is very deep (28,125 to 28,262 feet drilling depth) but with excellent quality. The gas-saturated reservoir rock is located in the upper Wilcox Sandstone (Paleocene-Eocene). There is 135 ft of gas pay with as much as 20% porosity and 10-20 ohm-meters of resistivity.

The Davy Jones well was drilled on a large anticlinal feature with approximately 20, 000 acres of structural closure at Wilcox level (Figure 2).

McMoRan intends to continue drilling another thousand feet or so in order to evaluate the next two potential reservoir strata known as the lower Wilcox