Talos Energy named high bidder on 13 deepwater blocks in Gulf of Mexico

Talos Energy (TALO) announced that it was named as the apparent high bidder on 13 deepwater blocks comprising approximately 74,000 gross acres in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf Federal Lease Sale 261 held by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, on December 20. Leases for all blocks remain subject to normal-course, formal award by the Department of the Interior. Separately, Talos executed lease exchange agreements with BP Exploration & Production Inc. (BP), Chevron (CVX), and Hess Corporation (HES) under which the parties are consolidating acreage across 15 blocks in the deepwater Green Canyon area of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The consolidation provides the parties the ability to execute prospective drilling opportunities more efficiently upon developing the contributed acreage, which includes several identified prospects. Talos’s participation in these blocks is expected to be between 15% and 20%. Talos president and CEO Timothy Duncan commented: “I am pleased with the results of our bidding efforts and for achieving broad success with a high level of activity in Lease Sale 261, adding acreage and prospects to Talos’s robust portfolio. The proximity of these prospects to our existing assets, including Ram Powell, Pompano, Prince, and Brutus facilities, bolsters our infrastructure-led, near-field strategy in the Gulf of Mexico while providing opportunities to lower the overall carbon intensity of our assets over time.”