The Australian oil and gas company will have a 100% working interest and a net revenue interest of 87.5% in the offshore US block
BOEM awards SM66 lease to Byron Energy. (Credit: wasi1370 from Pixabay)
Byron Energy has been awarded the South Marsh Island 66 lease (SM66) from the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) under the recently held Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Lease Sale 256 programme.
The Australian oil and gas company said that one of its fully-owned subsidiaries prevailed as the highest bidder for the offshore US block.
The company will hold a 100% working interest and a net revenue interest of 87.5% in the block, which is located southeast of its existing South Marsh Island 60 lease (SM60).
Byron Energy CEO Maynard Smith said: “We are very pleased to have been awarded this additional South Marsh Island lease. The SM66 lease will enhance our prospect inventory and is a block we will move up in our drilling program as it has significant hydrocarbon potential.”
Currently, the Australian company operates two production platforms – South Marsh Island 71 F (SM71 F) and South Marsh Island 58 G (SM58G) in its South Marsh Island project area.
Byron Energy said that wells from the two platforms have so far produced a combined total of three million barrels of oil and five billion cubic feet of gas.
The SM71 G platform began production in March 2018, while the SM58 G platform came online in September 2020.
According to the company, SM66 was assessed by using the same reprocessed reverse time migrated seismic data that was employed to make the discoveries on SM71 and SM58.
From 1969 to 2018, SM66 had produced 1.4 million barrels of oil and 238 billion cubic feet of gas.
SM66 is among the 14,862 unleased blocks offered by BOEM under the Lease Sale 256 programme.
In November 2020, BOEM stated that the region-wide Gulf of Mexico Lease Sale 256 generated $120.8bn in high bids for 93 tracts spanning 517,733 acres. A total of 23 companies took part in the lease sale, submitting $135.5m in total bids.