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Shell (RDS.A) Hits Oil in Gulf of Mexico's Leopard Prospect

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A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell recently made a major oil discoveryat the Leopard prospect in the Alaminos Canyon block 691 in the deep-water U.S. Gulf of Mexico (GoM). At multiple stages, the Leopard Well encountered more than 600 feet (183 metres) of net oil pay and an assessment is underway to further determine development options.

Notably, Leopard is run by Shell (50%) and co-owned by Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (CVX - Free Report) (50%). It is located about 20 miles east of the Whale discovery, 20 miles south of the recently reviewed Blacktip discovery and 33 miles from the Perdido host. The discovery well was drilled at a water-depth of 2,070 meters by Transocean’s ultra-deepwater drillship Deepwater Thalassa.

Shell's Deepwater executive vice president Paul Goodfellow believes that Leopard is a lucrative add-on to the company's core portfolio and strengthens its supremacy in the Gulf of Mexico, particularly given its connectivity to established infrastructure and other discoveries in the Perdido Corridor. He further added, "With our US Gulf of Mexico production among the lowest GHG intensity in the world, Shell remains confident about the GoM and this latest discovery will help us deliver on our strategy to focus on valuable, high margin barrels as we sustain material Upstream cash flows into the 2030s."

Also, Leopard offers Shell a chance to boost its production in the Perdido Corridor where the company’s Tobago, Great White and Silvertip fields are already carrying out production activity. In the meantime, Shell-run Whale discovery, which is also in the Perdido Corridor, is nearing a final investment decision this year.

About Shell

This integrated energy player belongs to a global group of energy and petrochemical companies. It is involved in all phases of the petroleum industry right from exploration to final processing and delivery. The company recently released first-quarter 2021 earnings results wherein the bottom line came ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3.8%.

Among other supermajor players in the energy  space, the bottom-line results of ExxonMobil (XOM - Free Report) and TOTAL SE beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 10.2% and 29.4%, respectively.

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