7
2014 Annual Report
Top 10 Global Discoveries in 2014 (MMBOE)
Since inception, Cobalt has focused primarily on drilling
exploration wells on our extensive below-salt portfolio,
resulting in ten significant deepwater discoveries. In fact,
according to
Wood Mackenzie’s Global Exploration: 2014 in
Review
, Cobalt holds interests in three of the 2014 top ten oil
discoveries worldwide, which include Orca, Anchor and Bicuar.
Orca was cited as the third largest discovery and second largest
oil discovery in the world in 2014, with Anchor coming in fifth.
In 2015, our primary focus areas are Project Appraisal and
Development, Continued Exploration, and New Ventures.
Project Appraisal and Development
Cobalt’s current strategy is to direct the vast majority of our
capital expenditures toward project appraisal and development
activities with the aim to increase our proved reserves and
establish production and cash flow.
In the Gulf of Mexico, Cobalt is progressing our four world
class deepwater discoveries through various stages of appraisal
and development. These include Heidelberg, which is well
along in the development phase and is expected to start
producing in the first half of 2016. At Shenandoah, we recently
drilled the second appraisal well, and anticipate the third
Shenandoah appraisal well to commence later in 2015.
At North Platte, we are currently drilling our first appraisal well
in a location updip of our North Platte #1 discovery well in order
to confirm lateral continuity. In addition, we are targeting deeper
Lower Tertiary sands not seen in the discovery well. Our most
recent Gulf of Mexico discovery, Anchor, which we announced
in January of this year, is one of our best wells drilled to date
in the Gulf of Mexico. We look forward to drilling our first Anchor
appraisal well later this year.
We made two significant discoveries in Angola at the
beginning of 2014. In January we announced our Bicuar
discovery in Block 21 oshore Angola. This discovery was
particularly important because it was the first syn-rift
discovery, a new geologic horizon that holds great potential
for further pre-salt exploration. Bicuar represented our
fourth consecutive discovery in Angola’s Kwanza Basin.
We followed Bicuar’s success by announcing that our Orca #1
exploration well in Block 20 also oshore Angola resulted in
our fifth consecutive Angolan oil discovery. Appraisal drilling
continues on our first Orca appraisal well.
Continued Exploration
In addition to Project Appraisal and Development, we are
simultaneously maintaining an ongoing exploration program on
our acreage. We currently have several below-salt exploration
prospects in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and we will continue
to mature our operated below-salt prospect inventory through
seismic acquisition and evaluation and well permitting activities
for future exploration drilling. We also currently have several
pre-salt exploration prospects oshore West Africa and plan to
continue maturing our oil-focused exploration prospects on
our Blocks.
New Ventures
In addition to our existing assets in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and
oshore West Africa, and as part of our strategy of renewing
our world-wide exploration portfolio, our New Ventures group
is actively evaluating additional exploration opportunities.
Consistent with our core strengths, our New Ventures strategy
is centered on pursuing high-value, deepwater oil-focused
exploration opportunities in frontier and under-explored basins
and continues to focus on the Atlantic Basin, specifically
opportunities in Mexico and the Canadian East Coast.
Russian –
Gas
Cobalt Discoveries
Based on Wood Mackenzie Data
949
660
403
330
280
276
240
200
197
150
Iraq –
Faihaa
Angola –
Orca
Senegal –
SNE
U.S. GOM –
Anchor
U.S. GOM –
Guadalupe
Senegal –
FAN
CongoMinsala Norway –
Alta
Angola –
Bicuar
ORCA WAS CITED AS THE SECOND LARGEST OIL DISCOVERY
IN THE WORLD IN 2014
Based on Wood Mackenzie Data
