Murphy Oil Corp. announced April 12 that it achieved first oil from the Khaleesi, Mormont and Samurai field development project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, as production has begun flowing through the Murphy-operated King’s Quay floating production system.

The mega project is comprised of the Khaleesi-Mormont fields in Green Canyon blocks 389 and 478, respectively, and the Samurai field, located in Green Canyon Block 432. According to Murphy, two wells are already online and completion operations are ongoing for the remaining five wells and is expected to take between 40 and 45 days.

“This has been a strategic project of ours since we acquired the Khaleesi-Mormont assets in mid-2019 and integrated our Samurai discovery into the overall development," Roger W. Jenkins, President and CEO of Murphy Oil, said in a statement.

"Achieving first oil on schedule and within budget, while managing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrates the competitive advantage of our industry-leading offshore execution ability.“

Murphy’s subsidiary, Murphy Exploration & Production CO., operates the King’s Quay FPS and associated export lateral pipelines, which are owned 50 percent by an affiliate of Third Coast Infrastructure LLC and 50 percent by entities managed by Ridgewood Energy Corp., including ILX Holdings III, LLC. The King’s Quay FPS is designed to process 85,000 barrels of oil per day and 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

"The production coming online is forecast to generate significant free cash flow, which will allow us to continue to deliver with $600 to $650 million of targeted debt reduction this year and the optionality of up to $1 billion in 2023, while simultaneously reviewing our dividend," Jenkins said.

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