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Through its affiliate TotalEnergies E&P USA Inc., TotalEnergies has announced its decision not to sanction, and to withdraw from, the North Platte deepwater project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
The decision not to continue with the project was taken “as the company has better opportunities of allocation of its capital within its global portfolio”, TotalEnergies noted in a company statement. The company said it had notified its partner and the relevant authorities of its immediate withdrawal from the project, and of its resignation as operator.
This will be effective following a short transition period to ensure an orderly hand-over of operatorship, according to TotalEnergies, which holds a 60 percent operated interest in North Platte. Equinor holds the remaining 40 percent stake.
Back in 2012, TotalEnergies, then named Total, announced a “significant” oil discovery at the North Platte prospect on Garden Banks Block 959 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The company estimated at the time that this discovery could have a potential of several hundred million barrels of oil.
Total became the operator of the North Platte discovery in 2018 after buying a 20 percent interest in the asset – boosting its total stake to 60 percent – as part of the Cobalt International Energy company’s bankruptcy auction sale. Equinor, then named Statoil, acquired the other 40 percent, Total highlighted at the time.
In December 2019, Total announced that front-end engineering and design (FEED) had begun for the North Platte discovery.
The North Platte field straddles four blocks of the Garden Banks area, 170 miles off the coast of Louisiana in approximately 4,265 feet of water. The reservoir is said to be of high quality, both in porosity and permeability, with thickness in places exceeding 3,900 feet.
TotalEnergies has been active in exploration and production in the United States since 1957 and has a diverse portfolio of operated and non-operated oil and gas assets, from deep offshore to onshore shale gas developments, its website highlights. The company produced 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the country in 2019, according to its site.
