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Anadarko spreads deepwater wings; six discoveries in 3 years
Petroleum News
Anadarko Petroleum is on the fast tract in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, racking up a half-dozen oil and gas discoveries in three years and preparing to launch the company’s first-ever deepwater production at its first discovery, Marco Polo.
The big Houston independent said Jan. 20 that the $220 million Marco Polo platform, the deepest tension leg platform in the world, was successfully installed — following delays — in 4,300 feet of water about 160 miles south of New Orleans. First production is now expected in July.
“We anticipated some weather delays in our schedule, but they persisted beyond our estimates and caused us some delay in start-up,” said Mark Pease, vice president of U.S. onshore and offshore activities for Anadarko. “Everything that we could control during the project was on schedule and completed without a hitch.”
Anadarko initially hoped to bring Marco Polo on stream during this year’s first quarter. Facilities built to process 120,000 barrels of oil per day Facilities were built to process 120,000 barrels per day of oil and 300 million cubic feet of gas per day, although Anadarko declined to discuss projected production rates for Marco Polo until the company’s Jan. 27 conference call on 2003 fourth-quarter earnings.
Anadarko’s reluctance to talk about production levels ahead of the call could be due to a lack of firm reserve estimates and performance metrics for two other Anadarko discoveries in the immediate area, K2 and K2 North. Both are expected to be tied back to the Marco Polo platform at Green Canyon block 608.
Upon sanctioning the project in late 2001, Anadarko said Marco Polo would have firm capacity of 50,000 barrels per day of oil and 150 million cubic feet per day of gas, with the remainder of the capacity to be available to Anadarko for additional production and to third parties with fields in the area. Discoveries in area around facility But subsequent discoveries by Anadarko and its partners in the area could have changed the equation with regard to third-party availability. The K2 North find announced last November encountered 128 feet of net oil pay in the same zone as K2 and “significantly” extended the boundaries of the K2 field northward, Anadarko said. The company said additional drilling would be required to determine its full potential.
Marco Polo’s 196 foot hull traveled 13,000 miles from South Korea to the installation site, where it was mated to its 6,725 ton topsides. With the platform in place, Anadarko said only that it would proceed with installation of the platform rig and tiebacks and completion of Marco Polo’s six development wells. Oil and gas export pipelines also are to be connected to the platform, the company said.
GulfTerra Energy Partners and Cal Drive International actually own the platform structure, while Anadarko serves as operator.
In addition to the Marco Polo, K2 and K2 North discoveries, Anadarko has scored three gas finds in the eastern Gulf of Mexico — Jubilee, Atlas and Spiderman. All are candidates for a proposed hub development or central production facility that also could handle production from fields owned by other companies.
Anadarko holds interests in 536 blocks in the Gulf, 288 of them in deepwater.
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