American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019 - 90

SpecialReport: Gulf of Mexico Update
unbooked reserves from our existing infrastructure with the advantages that platform rig day rates are much lower compared
with floating rigs, and first production begins within days of
completing rig operations," Wilkirson states. "The subsea exploration opportunities add scale and diversity."
EnVen's 2019 capital expenditure budget is $250 million$300 million, and the company is expected to be free cash
flow positive for the fourth consecutive year, Wilkirson notes,
adding that the company expects 2019 daily production to
average 30,000-34,000 boe/d, up from 2018's average of
29,000-30,000 boe/d.
Expanded Acreage Position
W&T Offshore Inc. was the fourth most active bidder at
Sale 252, submitting the high bids on 15 blocks covering
73,500 acres. Eight of the blocks are in deep water (Garden
Banks 173, Green Canyon 3, 46, 47, 49, 91 and 92, and Mississippi Canyon 244) and seven are in shallow water (Eugene
Island 357, 378, 393, 395 and 396, Main Pass 286, and South
Marsh 205), notes Tracy W. Krohn, W&T's chairman and
chief executive officer.
"We are very pleased to expand our acreage by being the
apparent high bidder on 15 blocks. Over the past 35 years, we
have developed significant technical experience and have successfully discovered and produced properties on the conventional
Shelf and in deep waters across the Gulf," Krohn states. "We
utilized our proprietary seismic to determine the blocks we felt
complemented our current acreage and extended known discoveries in the subsalt. We also believe that focusing on acreage
around our production facilities allows for more economic and
quicker development of potential discoveries."
Executive Vice President William Williford, general manager
of Gulf of Mexico operations, says W&T's approach at Sale
252-bidding on blocks at both ends of the water depth spectrum-is the result of its "balanced approach" to add reserves
through the drill bit both on the Shelf and in deepwater plays.
At last August's Sale 251, the company was top bidder on two
leases in the High Island area and two in the Main Pass area.

Reflecting W&T Offshore's balanced approach to add reserves
through the drill bit both on the Shelf and in deep water, the company was high bidder on eight deepwater blocks and seven shallow-water tracts at Sale 252 in March. Shown here at left is W&T's

90 THE AMERICAN OIL & GAS REPORTER

"We are not active only in deep water or on the Shelf,"
Williford explains. "We go to lease sales mainly to get leases in
and around current infrastructure; that is how we look at leasing
opportunities. They could be in deep water or on the Shelf, as
long as we can create value with them. We have bought quite a
bit of acreage on the Shelf in and around current infrastructure
and recently drilled wells in fields that had not seen drilling in
10 years."
Finding new reserves in Shelf properties is creating a
growth engine even as the company continues to identify
deepwater subsalt prospects, he adds. W&T has more than
515,000 gross acres on the Shelf that have generated about 60
percent of the company's total production of 36,500 boe/d in
2018, Williford says.
"When you think about the Shelf, you think about the infrastructure and the lower-cost environment," he explains. "It gives
us the opportunity to grow production through workovers and
recompletions with a lot of additional uphole potential at a
lower cost, and requires less time to get production on line
compared with deep water."
Current Projects
W&T has drilled and completed 13 wells at its operated Mahogany Field in Ship Shoal 349/359. The latest is the A-19
well, which was completed in the "T" sand and brought on line
in the fourth quarter. "The A-19, which is updip from the T
sand first discovered in the A-14 well, logged exceptionally
high-quality T sand pay," Williford says. "The well was completed
as a T sand producer, but has multiple zones behind pipe for
future exploitation."
The A-19 was brought on line using a staged production
ramp up, and was producing at a controlled rate of 5,205 boe/d
in mid-February, Williford reports. The A-19 is W&T's third
producer in the T sand, and has shown significantly higher rates
of early production than either of the two previous wells
completed in the T sand, with a productivity index more than
double the best prior completion in the field, he points out.
W&T is preparing to restart the platform rig to drill the A-12

tension leg platform stationed in the deepwater Matterhorn Field
in Mississippi Canyon 243, and at right is the Mahogany platform
in Ship Shoal 349/359 on the Shelf.

American Oil and Gas Reporter - April 2019

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