Dominion E&P Announces
First Production at Devils Tower
NEW ORLEANS - Dominion Exploration & Production, Inc.,
a subsidiary of Dominion Resources (NYSE: D), today announced the start of production
from the Devils Tower field, located about 140 miles southeast of New Orleans
on Mississippi Canyon block 773 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Dominion expects
Devils Tower will produce 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas equivalent net
to Dominion over the first 12 months of production.
“Production and corresponding cash flow from deepwater
projects like Devils Tower and Front Runner, which will come on later this year,
provide tremendous upside to our E&P program and complements our stable,
long-life onshore program,” said Thos. E. Capps, Dominion’s chairman
and chief executive officer. “We expect to continue to see increased production,
strong operating cash flow and a solid platform for growth from our E&P
operations.”
“The startup of Devils Tower is a significant milestone
for Dominion,” said Duane Radtke, president and chief executive officer
of Dominion E&P. “The project is the fourth producing property in
our deepwater portfolio, and the first operated by Dominion. Devils Tower will
be a major contributor to our deepwater production growth over the next two
years and will generate significant cash flow. The Devils Tower project also
adds to our record of outstanding exploration, production, and safety success
offshore.”
Production from the Mississippi Canyon 773 A-1 well began
today. The well is the first of eight completions to be brought on in sequence
through the first quarter of 2005. Oil and gas production from Devils Tower
flows through a spar floating production facility owned by a unit of The Williams
Companies, Inc.
The spar is designed to handle 60 thousand barrels of oil
and 110 million cubic feet of gas per day. Located in 5,610 feet of water, the
facility is the world’s deepest dry-tree spar. In addition to the Devils
Tower wells, a three-well subsea development is currently under evaluation to
connect the adjacent Triton and Goldfinger discoveries to the host platform.
“We look forward to production from Devils Tower for
years to come and to continuing an outstanding relationship with the Williams
Companies,” Radtke said.
Dominion E&P owns a 75 percent interest in the Devils
Tower project area, with partner Pioneer Natural Resources Company owning the
remaining 25 percent.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy,
with a portfolio consisting of 24,000 megawatts of generation, 6.4 trillion
cubic feet equivalent of natural gas reserves, 7,900 miles of natural gas transmission
pipeline and more than 960 billion cubic feet of storage capacity. Dominion
E&P is one of the largest independent natural gas and oil exploration and
production companies in North America with daily production of nearly 1.3 billion
cubic feet of natural gas equivalent. Dominion E&P operates in several major
producing basins in the lower 48 states, plus the outer continental shelf, deepwater
areas of the Gulf of Mexico, and western Canada. Dominion also serves five million
retail energy customers in nine states. Additional information about Dominion
is available on the Internet at www.dom.com.
