Dominion Announces Discovery at
Goldfinger Prospect
NEW ORLEANS - Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc.,
a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE:D), today announced a discovery at its Goldfinger
prospect in Mississippi Canyon (MC) Block 771 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
The discovery well was drilled in 5,423 feet of water and encountered 57 net
feet of oil bearing sand at approximately 15,000 feet below sea level. The well
was temporarily abandoned and will most likely be completed as a subsea tieback
to the Devils Tower spar on nearby Block MC 773.
Goldfinger represents the second subsea tieback prospect drilled
by Dominion E&P near the Devils Tower spar. The Triton discovery (MC 772
#4) was drilled in 2002 and successfully appraised (MC 728 #1) in 2003. A three-well
subsea development system is currently under evaluation to connect the discoveries
to the Devils tower host platform. The Devils Tower spar is set to commence
production in the second quarter of this year following commissioning of the
export pipelines and well completions. The Triton/Goldfinger project could be
completed and producing through the spar by late 2005 - early 2006 depending
on available processing capacity.
Dominion E&P owns a 75 percent working interest and is
operator of Devils Tower, Triton, and Goldfinger with partner Pioneer Natural
Resources Company (NYSE: PXD) owning the remaining 25 percent interest in the
project area.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy,
with an energy portfolio of more than 24,000 megawatts of generation, 6.4 trillion
cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves and 7,900 miles of natural
gas transmission pipeline. Dominion also operates the nation's largest underground
natural gas storage system with more than 960 billion cubic feet of storage
capacity and serves 5.3 million retail energy customers in nine states. For
more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.
