How important is Chevron's recent production in the Gulf?

Chevron Corp (CVX) announced today that they had successfully finished a test run at their Jack field in the Gulf of Mexico. During the test, Chevron reported that they, along with partners Devon Energy Corp. and Statoil ASA, were successful in producing around 6,000 barrels a day from the company's Jack well, a five-mile-deep well in the Gulf of Mexico's lower tertiary range.

While you may be thinking that 6,000 barrels a day output is not much to be hopeful about, what this does mean is that Chevron and other big oil companies now have the motivation to put more resources to work in the area. The area in question, the lower-tertiary range, is deeper than previously-exploited fields in the Gulf, with much much older rock formations. Many companies have been fearful of exploring these areas out of concerns that the rocks in question would be too tight from which to pull oil out, without the costs being too high to justify. Well, according to Larry Nichols, Devon's chairman and chief executive, that is just not the case and the area can be developed profitably.

If the area is successfully developed, the results could be phenomenal. Estimates for the recent findings in the Gulf of Mexico's lower-tertiary range anywhere from three to fifteen billion barrels of reserve oil, although much of the area has yet to be explored at all, and the actual finding could be even higher than estimated.