EXTRACT: Shell is believed to be the first major oil company to drill below 25,000 feet on the Gulf’s continental shelf, an arbitrary line that separates deep from the ultra-deep. The Shark well, drilled to a depth of around 26,000 feet, turned out to be a dry hole.
THE ARTICLE
Wildcat hits higher than expected pressure, falls short of 32,000-38,000 foot target on Gulf’s OCS
Ray Tyson
For Petroleum News
Blackbeard West No. 1, perhaps the world’s most closely watched exploration well because of its extremely deep target, fell well short of its goal and cast at least some doubt over the future of “ultra-deep” drilling for natural gas on the Gulf of Mexico’s outer continental shelf.