Texas-based Talos Energy has reported initial production from the Tornado II deep water well in the Phoenix Field of the Green Canyon area in the Gulf of Mexico in about 2,700ft of water.

The company said that during the test period for initial production, gross production rates crossed 12,350 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), out of which 83% was found to be oil.

Talos intends to flow the Tornado II and the Tornado wells at a combined gross rate of 24,000-27,000boepd. The company is the operator of the two Tornado wells with a stake of 65% and is partnered by Deep Gulf Energy III, which holds the remaining 35% working interest.

As part of the Tornado II drilling program, Talos carried out an exploratory test penetration in a fault block near its initial Tornado discovery in 2016. After that, Talos drilled a sidetrack well to delineate the initial reservoir.

According to Talos, the Tornado wells flow through the existing subsea infrastructure in the Phoenix Field into the Helix Producer I, a floating production unit dynamically placed on the nearby lease, Green Canyon block 237.

The existing field infrastructure enables expedited and capital efficient hook-up of the current production and future exploitation and development projects, stated Talos.

In its first 15 months of production, the original Tornado discovery well produced 7.4 million gross barrels of oil equivalent, which was before the Tornado II well had come online.

Talos Energy president and CEO Tim Duncan said: “The Talos Energy team continues to deliver positive results with compelling economics in the Tornado area of the Phoenix Field.

“I am proud of the achievements made by our technical and operational teams, who worked collaboratively in a safe and efficient manner to deliver this project six weeks ahead of schedule and under budget.”

In November 2017, Talos Energy had made a merger deal with Stone Energy to create a premier offshore-focused exploration and production company, valued at $2.5bn.