French oil giant Total has picked up several assets, including becoming operator of the North Platte discovery, located in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the Cobalt International Energy company’s bankruptcy auction sale.
French oil giant Total has picked up several assets, including becoming operator of the North Platte discovery, located in the Gulf of Mexico as part of the Cobalt International Energy company’s bankruptcy auction sale.
Total said in a statement that it had submitted offers on several assets for US$300 million dollars and acquired the following from Cobalt:
- A 20 per cent interest in the North Platte discovery. As a result, Total increases its interest to 60 per cent and becomes operator of this discovery. Total will have Statoil as a partner, who acquired the remaining 40 per cent.
- A 20 per cent interest in the Anchor discovery. As a result, Total increases its interest to 32.5 per cent, after having acquired 12.5 per cent last December. This discovery is operated by Chevron (55 per cent) alongside Total (32.5 per cent), and Venari (12.5 per cent).
- 13 offshore exploration blocks, which will be operated by Total.
“The sale of Cobalt’s assets gives us the opportunity to further enhance our portfolio in the Gulf of Mexico under particularly attractive conditions and to be able to apply our expertise as a deep offshore operator. We will now develop the North Platte discovery, looking for the most efficient scheme in terms of development cost”, stated Arnaud Breuillac, president Exploration & Production at Total.
Discovered in 2012 by Total and Cobalt in the Wilcox play, North Platte covers four blocks of the Garden Banks area, 275 km off the coast of Louisiana in approximately 1,300 meters of water. The field is now fully appraised with a total of three wells and three sidetracks.
Source: Pipeline ME
