The consortium has already made discoveries at the Blackbeard prospect and at Davy Jones.
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That particular well was drilled to hold the Blackbeard acreage for the partnership, even though it was the least interesting of the three cupola plays identified on new improved seismic.
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In 1718, Edward Teach, known as "Blackbeard" the pirate, was killed off the coast of North Carolina.
In the 17th century the cays' hidden inlets, coves and limestone caverns were the favorite haunts of such pirates and privateers as Blackbeard, who plundered Spanish galleons leaving the New World.
Blackbeard, who narrates the new AC4 trailer, has been the subject of many movies and documentaries.
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With down-hole temperatures of 440 degrees F. and pressures of 27, 000 pounds per square inch, such depths proved too daunting and expensive for Exxon-Mobil (XOM), which sold its Blackbeard well, at the mouth of the Mississippi, to McMoRan in 2008.
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Next up in that area was the drilling of another prospect 9 miles away at Blackbeard East .
Located in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico, these wells like Davy Jones and Blackbeard have found massive amounts of natural gas.
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At this point, Blackbeard East is being readied for a bypass and completion of the well to its targeted depth.
McMoran took over Blackbeard West some years ago and found hydrocarbons about 2500 feet below the point where Exxon Mobil gave up and poured cement down the hole to seal it.
McMoran has since drilled a second well into Davy Jones (using a fatter pipe), proving that the reservoir structure stretches over 20, 000 acres, and is now drilling a second Blackbeard well, currently at a depth of 25, 200 feet.
Exxon Mobil walked away from its Blackbeard West well when temperatures and pressures became so great that there was fear in the corporate headquarters of another Exxon Valdez type of environmental catastrophe.
The company expects to have results of key flow tests from Davy Jones this month and from its Blackbeard and Lafitte wells early next year.
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