Posted on 01/19/2015 9:55:31 AM PST by thackney
Anadarko Petroleum Corp. has harvested the first barrels of petroleum at its deep-water Lucius project in the Gulf of Mexico, one of the biggest startups expected in the U.S. offshore region this year.
The Woodlands-based oil explorer’s massive Lucius production facility includes a 23,000-ton truss spar, which is a 110-foot-diameter floating cylindrical hull that can handle up to 80,000 barrels of oil and 450 million cubic feet of natural gas a day.
The Lucius field, named after an heir to the Roman throne, houses 300 million barrels of oil equivalent about 230 miles offshore in 7,200 feet of water.
The project is one of five expected to push Gulf oil production up 18 percent annually over the next two years to 1.9 million barrels of oil equivalent a day through 2016, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie.
The field was discovered in late 2009 and Anadarko sanctioned the project two years later. The massive truss spar, about 605 feet long, arrived in the Gulf in May 2013.
More info
http://www.anadarko.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/Media%20Center/LuciusMediaBookletFINAL.pdf
http://www.dockwise.com/readmore/content-102.html
http://www.offshore-technology.com/projects/lucius-project/
Is this the formation that’s UNDERNEATH the previously-explored foundations in the Gulf?
At 11,500 ft or thereabouts?
I have not seen where these specific Keathley Canyon Blocks had been previously drilled. It is not a giant field.
The Lucius structure is spread over parts of Keathley Canyon blocks 874, 875, 918 and 919, with a three way closure against a salt barrier.
The Lucius field was discovered in December 2009 using the Ensco 8500 semi-submersible rig. The discovery well was drilled to a depth of 20,000ft in about 7,100ft of water.
It encountered 200ft of net pay in subsalt Pilocene and Miocene sands of Keathley Canyon block 875. High quality crude oil of 29º API was encountered during the discovery drilling.
Wow.
It’s good to know that Titan didn’t get all the dinosaurs!
what’s the cost on a per barrel basis to lift/pump out the oil from this rig?
Thanks!!
It’s incredible to me that they can spin a drill bit at the end of more than five miles of pipe.
Or do they use some sort of remote drive motor on the sea bed?
In spite of Obama’s restrictions against Gulf of Mexico oil, especially after the BP spill, isn’t it still true that there are some projects coming on line which have been prompted by the previously high prices?
In other words, are there significant oil supplies coming into production in the Gulf which will add to the already increasing production of oil in the US and throughout the world? Are similar fields coming into production around the world? The Kashagan oil field, supposedly, is coming into production in two years. Perhaps there are many similar, if not as large, projects coming on line now, no?
We can produce oil from algae. When algae and the like is trapped under sediment away from free oxygen, a bunch of millions of years later, oil rises to the cap stones in petroleum traps.
This, like all oil producing fields, are in sedimentary basins.
I guess a whole lot of algae can build up over a hundred million years or so.
Mud motor. The end of the drill pipe has a “motor” driven by the pumping of the drilling fluid through it. This fluid then flows back up outside lifting out the cuttings.
1 inch compacted sediment every thousand years for hundreds of millions of years is miles deep.
Sure. Projects like this take years to complete AFTER the oil is found and the decision to proceed is made.
Wow. A mud motor. Incredible.
The pipes that bring the pressurized mud down must have to operate under a lot of pressure. The engines topside must be monsters.
and heat.
Interesting, there was a story today about the amount of fine which Anadarko faces over the BP rig spill.
Nothing quite like this says “suck it” to the Mideast and its House and Senate liberal whores in the racist democrat party. Drill, baby, drill, and send the likes of Boxer, Feinstein, Markey et al packing.
World’s Largest Traders Use Offshore Supertankers to Store Oil
By Sarah Kent and Georgi Kantchev
Jan. 19, 2015 12:49 p.m. ET
The supertanker TI Oceania was built to ferry vast quantities of oil across oceans but for the next year it is expected to remain firmly anchored off the coast of Singapore, storing millions of barrels of oil for giant trading house Vitol SA.
According to shipbrokers and analysts, the 3-million-barrel megaship—one of the largest in the world—is just one example of a growing trend that sees traders seeking ways to turn a profit in the slumping global oil market. The strategy is simple: buy and store oil at cheap prices now and sell futures contracts to lock in the higher oil prices expected later.
According to data gathered from ship brokers and analysts, major traders including Vitol SA, Gunvor SA, Trafigura Beheer BV and Koch Supply & Trading Co. Ltd have chartered supertankers capable of storing a combined total of more than 30 million barrels of oil—many of them in the past few weeks. Vitol, Gunvor and Trafigura declined to comment. Koch didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The opportunity to stockpile oil in such large quantities has come from the dramatic shift in the commodity’s market in recent months. Since June, prices have collapsed, tumbling by more than 50% amid soaring production from the U.S. and unwavering output from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, at a time when global economic growth and weak demand is slowing.
The oversupply has given rise to contango—when the current price of a commodity is lower than prices for delivery in the future. That makes it attractive for buyers to purchase oil now at the cheaper rates, store it and strike sales agreements at a higher price in the future, locking in profits.
Storing Oil At Sea Is About Futures Prices, Not Crude Oil Prices Rebounding
The idea being to store crude oil on the ships and perhaps wait and see if the oil price rebounds. Except that’s not really quite what is happening. This is all much more about futures prices than it is a bet upon the actual future price of oil.
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