Houston – Exxon Mobil Corp., the world’s biggest oil company, has abandoned plans to drill the deepest-ever well and turned control of the project over to a New Orleans-based company.
Exxon Mobil withdrew from the Blackbeard West project in the Gulf of Mexico after failing last year to reach its target of 32,000 feet below the sea floor, deeper than Mount Everest is high. The company was replaced as operator by McMoRan Exploration Co. last week, according to a public filing by Treasure Island Royalty Trust, which owns part of the royalty rights to Blackbeard.
Exxon Mobil’s departure means drilling won’t resume without new partners to help shoulder costs, the Houston-based trust said in Tuesday’s filing. Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp. and BP Plc are drilling wells two and three times deeper than five years ago as untapped reserves get harder to find.
Blackbeard, located in 70 feet of water off the Louisiana coast, was intended to test the limits of drilling technology by delving into natural-gas deposits locked within rock formations where temperatures can reach 600 degrees Fahrenheit.
