Houston-based oil and gas company Murphy Oil has achieved the first oil from the Khaleesi, Mormont, and Samurai field development project in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, as production has begun flowing through the Murphy-operated King’s Quay floating production system (King’s Quay FPS).

The 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.

The giant FPS platform was built by Hyundai Heavy Industries at its Ulsan facility in South Korea. Following the completion, the platform sailed away on board a COSCO Shipping-owned vessel at the end of the second quarter to Texas where it arrived in September 2021.

In early February 2022, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) inspectors and engineers conducted an offshore regulatory pre-production inspection of King’s Quay FPS.

Announcing the first oil on Tuesday, Murphy Oil said that completions operations are ongoing for the remaining five wells in the seven-well project.

Roger W. Jenkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, said: “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. 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. I am proud of our team’s accomplishments these past three years with the fabrication and installation of the King’s Quay FPS and our subsea flowline systems, as well as drilling and completing the wells.”

Jenkins added: “The production coming online is forecast to generate significant free cash flow, which will allow us to continue to delever with $600 to $650 million of targeted debt reduction this year and the optionality of up to $1 billion in 20231, while simultaneously reviewing our dividend. I look forward to the ongoing production growth from the Gulf of Mexico as the remainder of the wells come online throughout 2022.”

Murphy’s subsidiary, Murphy Exploration & Production Company – USA, 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 Corporation, including ILX Holdings III, LLC. The King’s Quay FPS is designed to process 85 thousand barrels of oil per day and 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.