Houston: Even the best swing and miss sometimes. And American multinational ConocoPhillips has just illustrated that truism of baseball by announcing two big goose eggs from a couple of its offshore exploration wells.
ConocoPhillips, the world’s biggest exploration and production company, said one well was offshore Angola and the other was in the Gulf of Mexico.
In the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the Harrier prospect in Mississippi Canyon Block 118 was drilled to a total depth of 19,400 ft but no commercial hydrocarbons were found. The well will be plugged and abandoned.
In the Angola case Omosi-1 deepwater well in Block 37 in the Kwanza basin, was drilled to a depth of 20,666 ft. A gas column of approximately 525 ft was found in the primary objective reservoir. But no further activity is planned, the Houston-based firm said.
Proving the energy exploring game is still a risky prospect, ConocoPhillips will face an after-tax charge of about $142 million net for the two disappointments, which will be recorded as dry hole expense in the first quarter this financial year.
