Posted on 03/31/2010 9:13:32 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Shell today produced its first oil and natural gas from the Perdido Development, the world’s deepest offshore drilling and production facility. Located in an isolated, ultra-deep sector of the Gulf of Mexico, Perdido marks a new era in innovation and safely unlocks domestic sources of energy for US consumers. The facility sits in approximately 2,450 meters (8,000 feet) of water, which is roughly equivalent to six Empire State Buildings stacked one atop the other, and will access reservoirs deep beneath the ocean floor. Perdido smashes the world water depth record for an offshore platform by more than 50%.
“Perdido is an impressive project in a strong Gulf of Mexico portfolio that continues to grow,” said Marvin Odum, Upstream Americas Director, Shell Energy Resources Company. “Perdido presented technical challenges unlike we’ve ever seen in the Gulf of Mexico. Shell’s team used its expertise to open this new frontier and confront complex reservoir characteristics, extreme marine conditions, and record water depth pressures. Perdido demonstrates what companies like Shell can do when US federal lands and waters are opened to responsible energy exploration and production.”
From the first lease purchase to today’s production, the Perdido Development required an industry workforce of approximately 12,000 people, including employees and contractors. Shell designed, and operates, the Perdido host spar, a floating production facility, which is jointly owned by Shell (35%), Chevron (37.5%), and BP (27.5%).
The facility will produce from the Great White, Silvertip, and Tobago offshore fields, requiring perhaps as many as 35 wells over the life of the fields. Tobago sits in more than 2,900 meters (9,600 feet) of water and surpasses the world depth record for a completed subsea well. In addition, all Perdido subsea fields will utilize a unique and innovative subsea separation and boosting system to enable oil and natural gas recovery.
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Perdido fast facts:
* One day’s production from Perdido is equivalent to the energy needed to fuel 500 cars for 15 years
* First commercial production from the Lower Tertiary reservoir in the Gulf of Mexico
* First Gulf of Mexico full host subsea separation and boosting removes about 2,000 psi of backpressure from the wells
* First spar wet tree Direct Vertical Access (DVA) wells
* The project achieved 10-million hours without a Lost Time Injury
* Located 320 kilometers (200 miles) from the Texas coast in Alaminos Canyon Block 857
* The Great White field represents about 80% of Perdido’s total estimated production
* Perdido’s project life is expected to be about 20 years
* Construction of the Perdido host spar began in late 2006
* Topsides were mated with the spar in a single lift in early 2009
Ping.
The Moonbats go nuts on this information.
Have sailed on Perdido...lovely area, absolutely lovely!
Somewhere a Democrat is shedding tears after reading this. Somewhere, a Florida activist is writing a letter to their friendly editor about how this will devastate their beach.
Meh, let ‘em...the folks in Gulf Shores’ll straighten them out quickly enough. ;-)
What I wouldn’t give to be down there for a day or two! I love that white sand!
Since we have so many deep water oil wells beneath the ocean floor that provides more "fossil fuel", I assume special dinosaurs roamed under the ocean floor?
Peak oil? I doubt it...
Were these areas always under the ocean? Are "dinosaurs" the only possible source of biological material that might be converted to petroleum?
Well, we’ve always had oceans...and I highly question if “fossils” were the ONLY source of oil. Just doesn’t make any sense....
See link at #10.
You specifically said "dinosaurs roamed" ... I merely point out that there's a lot of life other than large land animals, and that some of it lives in the ocean.
Are you actually in Ohio? You can do some fossil hunting in your own (figurative) backyard!
Yep, living la vida loco in SW Ohio - just south of Dayton.
Do you know where Caesar Creek Lake is? The emergency spillway for the lake is a channel cut about 75' deep through limestone. Clarksville Road (Co Rd 37) crosses the channel. It's a great place for fossil hunting; found my first trilobite there.
39 28 48N 84 03 25W
BTTT.
“Alien Squid link” doesn’t work.
Algae, plankton and other simple biological matter make up most of the source.
Keep in mind the rock, even at these depths, is still sedimentary rock.
Even when the sediment is only 5 cm per thousand years, multiple by many, many millions of years and you get some significant depth. Then look at the sedimentary outfall from something like the Mississippi River and you get real accumulation.
That’s my point.
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