Shell, BP announce first production at Gulf of Mexico deepwater hub

Petroleum News

Shell and BP said Dec. 8 they have achieved first production at their jointly owned Na Kika project hub in deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Na Kika consists of five independent fields — Kepler, Ariel, Fourier, Herschel and East Anstey — and is located at the Mississippi Canyon Block 474 about 140 miles southeast of New Orleans.

The five fields are being developed with a shared semi-submersible floating production facility — the first time a hub-type system has been used to develop a group of fields, all of which are of small to medium size and none of which, the companies said, were economic to be developed alone.

A sixth field, Coulomb, is 100 percent owned by Shell and will be tied into the Na Kika hub as production capacity becomes available.

Initial production from the first well in the development is projected to exceed 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

At its peak, Na Kika is expected to produce about 110,000 barrels of oil and 425 million cubic feet of gas per day. The fields will ultimately produce about 300 million barrels of oil and gas, the companies said.

Field development and platform costs for the project announced to date by the companies make it a $1 billion-plus development.

The Na Kika semi-submersible production facility is moored in water some 6,300 feet deep, the deepest for any installation of its type in the world, the companies said. The individual wells are in water depths that range from 5,800 to 7,000 feet.

The Kepler, Ariel and Herschel fields are primarily oil, while the Fourier and East Anstey fields are primarily gas.

Shell led development of the Na Kika project and is responsible for drilling and completion the project’s 10 development wells. BP will be the operator of the production phase of the project.

BP and Shell also announced the startup of the 75-mile Na Kika pipeline segment of the Okeanos Gas Gathering System from Na Kika to Main Pass 260, where the gas will be transported to various onshore markets via the BP/Shell Destin pipeline system. Okeanos will transport gas from deepwater discoveries in Mississippi Canyon and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The Na Kika segment of the Okeanos pipeline system was built by Shell, but is operated by BP.

“The facility adds significant production to our deepwater portfolio and is purpose-built for further subsea tie-backs from future discoveries in the area,” said Kenny Lang, vice president of BP’s deepwater production business unit. “We believe the deepwater Gulf of Mexico offers tremendous opportunities for BP.”

Gaurdie Banister, regional technical director of Shell EP Americas, said, “We have used groundbreaking technology to deliver this project, which is our sixth stand-alone hub in the Gulf of Mexico.”