XOM & Statoil have 50% interests in the leases with XOM being the operator. They drilled two wells but they don't have a way to get oil out yet ... their plans were to drill more wells and tie them into a CVX production facility a few miles away. The discovery was only made in 2008, they applied for an extension later that year and in Feb 2009 the extension was turned down.
Get this. There were originally 3 lease blocks involved - those three are the ones being denied extension. When they applied for the extension, the MMS (the government agency involved, now the BOEMRE) said they should lease two more adjacent blocks as well. So they bought those leases for $60M and put in another extension request including those two blocks. Now if they didn't have plans to develop those blocks why did they fork over another $60M for those adjacent blocks when requested? Why did they drill a second well in 2008?
http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=110309&rss=true
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StatoilHydro, ExxonMobil JV: Significant GOM Discovery with Julia
by Rigzone Staff
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Rigzone
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Tuesday, January 08, 2008
3 D Seismic Survey Area
ExxonMobil and StatoilHydro have hit it big with the Julia well in deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The joint venture discovered hydrocarbons about 265 miles southwest of New Orleans, La.
"This is a promising oil discovery," said Helen Butcher, StatoilHydro's exploration manager for deepwater Gulf of Mexico. "StatoilHydro is a major lease holder in Walker Ridge. This discovery supports our firm belief in this area."
Drilling to a total depth of 9,500 meters, the Julia well is located in 2,000 meters of water. More appraisal drilling is planned for 2008 to further define the extent of the Julia discovery.
This is the first well drilled for the joint venture, which was formed in 2005 to explore deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
This is the first well drilled for the joint venture, which was formed in 2005 to explore deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
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rigzone.com 
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Exxon and its partner Statoil ASA spent more than $300 million drilling two "producible" wells on the Julia prospect.
As part of its development strategy, Exxon was planning to drill three to six development wells and join them to a planned production facility operated by Chevron Corp located about eight miles away, according to the company's lawsuit.
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The Interior decision marks the first time the agency has determined that a production facility will enable development when the lessee owns the production facility, but will not facilitate development when the lessee does not own the production facility, Exxon said in its complaint.
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news.yahoo.com
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