APA Corp. and partner Total SA have decided to end drilling operations at the Keskesi East-1 discovery well offshore Suriname after encountering substantial pressure increases, according to a news release.

APA Corp. is the recently named parent holding company of Apache Corp.

The duo had hoped to reach deep Neocomian-aged targets, having already discovered oil, volatile oil and condensate in the Upper Cretaceous-aged Campanian and Santonian intervals as announced in January.

“The additional drilling at the Keskesi East-1 well encountered hydrocarbons in the Lower Cretaceous interval and a carbonate depositional system above the top Neocomian target, both of which help to validate the partners’ geologic models,” APA said. “While encouraging, this data does not reveal specific information about the Neocomian targets themselves.

The company said information gathered from its latest well will be used to design a wellbore and drilling program to safely test the deep Neocomian targets in the future.

Offshore