Supermajor Shell is continuing work on a potential new deep-water oil and gas development in the US Gulf of Mexico with the drilling of an appraisal well on the Leopard discovery.

A spokesperson for Shell USA in Houston confirmed to Upstream the appraisal well is under way in the US Gulf’s Alaminos Canyon (AC) Block 691.

Shell is using the drillship Noble Globetrotter II in Block AC 691, according to a US Bureau of Safety & Environmental Enforcement deep-water activity weekly report.