Shell Extends Gulf of Mexico and Kazakhstan Exploration

Shell is planning to extend its exploration of oil in the US Gulf of Mexico and Kazakhstan in a bid to maintain production output.

Shell’s international production and exploration executive director Malcolm Brinded said the company plans to develop the West Boreas discovery located in the Gulf of Mexico, which may contain 100 million barrels of resources.

Brinded said the company is also evaluating plans to develop a second platform in the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater Mars field, which may provide 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day of output, according to Bloomberg.

Brinded said the company and its partners in the Kazakhstan Pearls project located in the Caspian Sea may take a final decision on investment in 2011.

“The potential here runs to hundreds of millions of barrels,” Brinded told reporters, referring to major oil discoveries at Auezov-1 in 2008 and Khazar-1 in 2007.

He said that Shell will carry out drilling at a third exploration well into the nearby Tulpar structure in 2010.