Beacon Offshore Energy has initiated oil and natural gas extraction from the Zephyrus field in Mississippi Canyon Block 759, roughly 130 miles (209km) south-east of New Orleans, US.
Production began from the field’s initial well, situated in water depths of 3,100ft (945m)–3,600ft.
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The development of the Zephyrus field, which includes Miocene-aged formations, commenced with the drilling of the Zephyrus #1 discovery well in 2023.
This well uncovered significant oil reserves in the Middle Miocene Cris “I” aged M2 sand (M2)
A subsequent well, Zephyrus #2, was also drilled by Beacon and reached a total measured depth of 26,270ft.
This secondary operation identified 116 net feet of pay across the M2 sand and two additional Miocene sands labelled M0 and UM1.
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By GlobalDataCompletion activities are under way for Zephyrus #2, with production anticipated late in the first quarter of 2026 (Q1 2026).
To facilitate production, Beacon collaborated with Shell Offshore to integrate the Zephyrus field into Shell’s existing West Boreas subsea infrastructure.
This connection allows for further processing at Shell’s Olympus production platform in the Mars Corridor.
According to Beacon, the Zephyrus development leveraged efficient infrastructure solutions including a high-integrity pressure protection system incorporated into a nine-mile subsea setup, aimed at lowering emissions, cutting costs and speeding up initial production.
The Zephyrus project involves partners such as Houston Energy, HEQ II, Red Willow Offshore, Westlawn Americas Offshore and Murphy Exploration & Production.
In October 2025, Beacon reported the successful ramp-up of four phase one development wells in the Shenandoah field, offshore Louisiana. Shenandoah achieved a target production rate of 100,000 barrels of oil per day (117,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day).
Beacon commenced oil and natural gas production at the Shenandoah field in July 2025. The first of four wells began operating that month.
The Shenandoah development is structured in phases, with the initial phase comprising these four wells.
