Hess Corporation announced that drilling at its Pony #2 well, on Green Canyon Block 468 in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, will be temporarily suspended because of drilling rig inspection requirements. The Ocean Baroness rig will be put in dry dock for statutory Coast Guard ABS inspection and routine repairs. The cost of the demobilization, repairs, inspection and remobilization will be incurred by Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.

“While we had hoped to reach total depth of 32,500 feet before this statutory inspection, various mechanical issues kept us from achieving this goal,” said John O’Connor, President, Worldwide Exploration and Production. “The Pony #2 well has been drilled and cased to approximately 23,000 feet and we plan to resume drilling in late September.”

Total hydrocarbon resource on the Hess acreage is estimated to be in the range of 100 to 600 million barrels of oil equivalent. Hess Corporation has a 100 percent working interest in the Pony discovery.