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 The company's exploration program focuses on high impact prospects in our core growth areas and is guided by our "Best Basin, Best Play, Best Prospect" philosophy.
Using a Petroleum Systems approach, we ensure that we participate in those lease sales and farm-in opportunities that are most likely to develop into prospective acreage holdings and potential exploration plays.
Through a mix of wildcat, appraisal and exploitation drilling, the exploration program targets resource additions of 200 million barrels of oil equivalent per year.
Recent highlights:
In 2006, an exploration well on the Corporation's Pony prospect (Hess 100%) on Green Canyon Block 468 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico encountered 475 feet of oil saturated sandstone in Miocene age reservoirs. Drilling of an appraisal sidetrack well on the Pony Prospect was completed in January 2007 which encountered 280 feet of oil saturated sandstone in Miocene age reservoirs after penetrating sixty percent of its geological objective. Drilling of the sidetrack well was stopped for mechanical reasons after successfully recovering 450 feet of conventional core. The Corporation is currently drilling an appraisal well about 7,400 feet northwest of the discovery well.
In 2006, on the Tubular Bells prospect (Hess 20%) in the Mississippi Canyon area of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico a successful appraisal well encountered hydrocarbons approximately 5 miles from the initial discovery well. The operator intends to drill two sidetrack wells in 2007 which will further delineate the field.
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