|
U.S. OKs first FPSO in Gulf of Mexico MMS approved use of floating, production, storage and offloading systems 4 years ago; Petrobras will use in ultra deep water Ray Tyson For Petroleum News
The federal regulatory agency that oversees oil and gas activities offshore United States has approved what likely will be the first-ever floating, production, storage and offloading or FPSO system to operate in U.S. territorial waters.
The honor goes to three companies headed by Brazil’s Petrobras, an experienced FPSO manager and operator of the yet undeveloped Cascade and Chinook fields in ultra-deepwater Gulf of Mexico. Oklahoma’s Devon Energy and France’s Total also hold shares in the Walker Ridge project. The partners anticipate field startup in 2009.
Cascade and Chinook evidently are too distant from the Gulf’s massive sub-sea pipeline system to warrant the expense of a separate oil line that would tie into the existing system. However, Petrobras did not disclose plan specifics for the two fields. Under a typical operation, the oil would be produced and stored in an FPSO vessel and later offloaded to a shuttle tanker and transported to shore.
FPSOs are widely used around the globe as an alternative to expensive pipelines. Petrobras alone has an extensive track record in FPSO use in Brazilian waters since 1979, where 15 units are currently in operation and another nine in construction.
MMS approved Gulf use four years ago After addressing the potential for oil spills and other environmental concerns associated with FPSOs and shuttle tankers, the Minerals Management Service approved their use in the U.S. Gulf more than four years ago. Earlier this year MMS predicted it would have its first FPSO application in hand by the end of 2006.
MMS recently approved the Petrobras’ “conceptual plan” to develop Cascade and Chinook, Petrobras said Dec. 11.
“This is the first time the use of an … FPSO-type platform gets this level of approval to operate in the Gulf of Mexico,” Petrobras said in a prepared statement. “Using FPSOs has proven to be efficient to improve oil and gas reserve development capacity in deep and ultra-deep waters.”
Petrobras said it would use six new technologies that have never been applied in the U.S. Gulf, including FPSOs with disconnectable turrets, which allow them to be removed in the event of hurricanes or other storms, oil transportation by relief vessels, submerged pumps, self-sustainable risers, torpedo piles and polyester anchoring lines.
The plan calls for the installation and operation of an FPSO at water depths of about 8,202 feet. In the first phase, two subsea wells in Cascade and one in Chinook, each at a depth of nearly 26,900 feet, would be interconnected.
The oil would then be offloaded by relief vessels and the associated gas via a pipeline. “Depending on reservoir behavior, new wells may be interconnected in the future,” Petrobras said.
Petrobras said detailed engineering studies would shed more light on project specifics, including elaboration of its Deep Water Operational Plan, “which will include the entire technical detailing, demonstrating these new technologies will attend to or surpass current requirements for operations in the Gulf of Mexico.”
Petrobras is the designated project operator with a 50 percent interest in Cascade and a 66.7 percent interest in Chinook. Devon holds a 50 percent stake in Cascade, while Total E&P USA holds a 33.33 interest in Chinook.
Fields could be first to produce zone Cascade and Chinook, in addition to being the first U.S. project to use an FPSO, could be the first offshore fields to produce from the Gulf’s emerging but highly acclaimed Lower Tertiary zone.
The Lower Tertiary play stretches several hundred miles from Walker Ridge westward through Keathley and Alaminos canyons, and is now believed to hold potentially billions of barrels of recoverable oil in dozens of individual prospects primed for exploration drilling based on the positive outcome of a recent production test conducted on the Chevron-operated Jack No. 2 well in Walker Ridge.
Also in the Lower Tertiary race are three Alaminos Canyon oil discoveries — Great White, Tobago and Silvertip — that would produce about 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day into a “hub” or centrally located facility.
Project operator Shell is expecting first production from the so-called Perdido Regional Host Project around 2010. The offshore production facility is being designed to gather production within a 30-mile radius of the hub. Other Perdido participants are Chevron, BP and Canada’s Nexen.
| 