January 10, 2025 [Oil Price]- Shell has started commercial production at the Whale field in the Gulf of Mexico, eyeing peak output levels of 100,000 barrels daily.
The project “will make a significant contribution to our commitment to bring projects online, with a total peak production of more than 500,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 2023 through 2025,” Shell’s director of integrated gas and upstream, Zoe Yujnovich, said in a statement.
Shell operates the Whale field with a 60% stake in partnership with Chevron, which holds the remainder. For the U.S. major, the project would be a means to reach its production target of 300,000 net barrels of oil equivalent by 2026. The field’s recoverable reserves are estimated at some 480 million barrels of oil equivalent.
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The Whale field was discovered back in 2017, but production was delayed because Shell and Chevron took their time to make the final investment decision on the project amid the demand slump that the pandemic lockdowns caused three years after the field’s discovery.
While the Gulf of Mexico project reached the production stage, Shell wrote down a Namibian oil discovery this week, dealing a blow to the Western African country’s ambitions to become a major producer of the energy commodity.
The offshore discovery “cannot currently be confirmed for commercial development,” Shell told Reuters earlier this week. Exploration at the offshore PEL39 block cost some $400 million, the Reuters report said. An oil discovery was made in the block two years ago, followed by a few others, sparking expectations that Namibia’s ambition could materialize.
“While we recognise that extracting the discovered resources presents challenges, the extensive data collected shows that there remain opportunities. Together with our partners, we are continuing to explore potential commercial pathways to development, while actively looking for further exploration opportunities in Namibia,” the supermajor said in a statement.
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