Specifically of interest to the Australian player is the subsalt Perdido trend to the north and east of areas already tapped by Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell in the Perdido fold-belt, extending through the central and eastern part of the Alaminos Canyon area and the south-eastern corner of East Breaks.
“It’s contiguous acreage, it’s high operatorship, it would be a first-mover advantaged position,” Geraldine Slattery, BHP Billiton’s conventional petroleum assets president, told Upstream.
“Our current subsurface analysis from the Palaeogene more towards the western Gulf of Mexico is showing much higher rates of deliverability, which would help the economics.”
BHP has made a sustained but quiet effort to build up its position in the western Gulf in recent years, blocking up both through open lease sales and a pair of direct deals last year.
Today, those holdings cover 152 blocks with 12 leads highlighted by the explorer.
An acreage swap with Chevron put BHP in the operator’s seat with a 60% stake on a swathe of 54 blocks focused on the Alaminos Canyon area. Chevron previously wholly owned the blocks and will retain a 40% stake.
BHP also signed a deal for 26 of ConocoPhillips’ 100%-owned blocks in its purchase agreement, realised also with a focus in the Alaminos Canyon area.
In part it was the company’s analysis of the western Gulf that helped spur it to pursue acreage, and succeed, in securing a partnership with Pemex in the company’s first-ever farm-out for the Trion field in the Mexican sector of the same region.
“As you know, geology doesn’t stop with borders,” Slattery said.
“We’ve got a strong and well-proven performance in the Gulf of Mexico. Extending that into Mexico made a lot of sense to us.”
Slattery added that the company also sees a “first-mover” advantage in Mexico, and said it was “delighted and proud” to pre-qualify and ultimately be successful in the bidding.
“So we are very much looking forward to that partnership.”
