Oct 28 (Reuters) – Seven new oil and gas producing platforms with combined
capacity of some 715,000 barrels per day are slated to start up through 2016 in
the Gulf of Mexico.
If current output holds steady at 1.3 million bpd, the new platforms would
lift production by 55 percent to about 2 million bpd – one-fifth of projected
output in the United States, which is fast becoming the world’s top oil and gas
producer.
Though BP Plc’s deepwater Macondo well blowout in 2010 effectively
halted new work in the Gulf for a year when it caused the worst offshore spill
in U.S. history, the basin is making a comeback.
In addition to the platforms, Royal Dutch Shell Shell, the top oil
producer in the Gulf of Mexico, aims to start up a floating production, storage
and offloading (FPSO) tanker in 2016 at its Stones field to initially produce up
to 50,000 bpd from a pair of wells.
And it’s not just new infrastructure, as some producers aim to hook up
fields to others’ existing or new platforms to save costs and make the most of
multibillion-dollar installations.
Next year Exxon Mobil Corp will hook its Hadrian South field to
Anadarko Petroleum Corp’s Lucius while moving forward with studies on
whether to build a platform for adjacent Hadrian North. This year, BP hooked up
new wells in Atlantis North to its Atlantis platform and aims to do the same at
its Na Kika platform.
Owner/Oper Platform Capacity Location Startup
ator (Oil)
Chevron Jack/St. 170,000 250 miles Late 2014
Malo bpd south of
New
Orleans
Chevron Big Foot 75,000 225 miles Late 2014
south of
New
Orleans
Shell Olympus 100,000 130 miles 2014
south of
New
Orleans
Anadarko Lucius 80,000 250 miles Mid-2014
south of
New
Orleans
Williams/ Gulfstar 60,000 135 miles Mid-2014
Hess southeast
of New
Orleans
LLOG/ Delta 100,000 120 miles 2015
Blackstone House southeast
of New
Orleans
Anadarko Heidelberg 80,000 160 miles Mid-2016
south of
New
Orleans
Shell Stones 50,000 200 miles 2016
FPSO south of
New
Orleans
(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Terry Wade, Diane Craft and Eric Walsh)
