Marathon completes first wildcat on deepwater Solomon prospect

Marathon Oil Corp. has completed drilling of its first Solomon exploration well targeting Wilcox at 34,600 ft TD on Walker Ridge Block 225 in the Gulf of Mexico. The company said the well encountered its lower tertiary target and was plugged. The 1BP1 was drilled in 6,781 ft of water by the Maersk Valiant drillship, and the rig has been released with no further activity planned on the block, the operator said.

The much anticipated Solomon wildcat is about 15 miles southwest of the Shanandoah discovery on Walker Ridge Block 51 where the Shenandoah-2 cut 1,000 ft of net oil pay in March 2013 (OGJ Online, Mar. 19, 2013).

Marathon holds a 58% working interest in the well as operator with Venari Resources holding 22%. In August, Murphy Oil Corp. acquired 20% interest in Solomon, which has a gross predrill estimate of more than 300 million bbl of oil.