1.9°C Cloudy 
CALGARY - Oil and gas producer Nexen Inc. (TSX:NXY) and partner Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A) have made a "significant" oil discovery in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, Nexen said Friday.
The find at the Appomattox project has "excellent reservoir quality," Calgary-based Nexen said in a statement.
It's the third discovery in the area, following other oil finds at the nearby Shiloh and Vicksburg sites, and its results have "exceeded our pre-drill expectations," the company said.
The drilling sites in the Mississippi Canyon in the eastern Gulf - a major U.S. energy production zone - are named for American Civil War encounters in Virginia, Tennessee and Mississippi.
"The Appomattox discovery confirms our confidence in the play and provides a strong basis to evaluate the remainder of our significant acreage position in the eastern Gulf of Mexico," said Nexen president and CEO Marvin Romanow.
"We are looking forward to additional drilling at Appomattox to confirm the estimate of total resource and move the discoveries towards development."
The latest discovery is close to eight kilometres deep, the companies said.
Nexen and Shell will conduct further testing at Appomattox later in the year. Nexen has a 20 per cent interest in Appomattox and Shiloh and a 25 per cent interest in the Vicksburg site. Shell is the operator for all three discoveries.
Nexen, with about 4,600 employees, is one of Canada's most international oil companies, with operations in the North Sea, off west Africa. the deep-water Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East.
In Canada, the company operates oilsands businesses and has other interests.
In Friday trading on the TSX, Nexen shares rose eight cents to $23.64 on the TSX.
