Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
Posted on 06/24/2008 5:27:28 AM PDT by thackney
U.S. Gulf’s largest discovery producing after delays; just one well online; commissioning will be after steady state production
The BP-operated Thunder Horse field, the largest-ever oil discovery in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, is finally onstream and headed toward higher production following repeated startup delays dating back to 2005. First oil was achieved June 14 from a single well, BP confirmed.
“We have a lot yet to do as we prepare other wells for production and continue to drill and complete other wells,” BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell told Petroleum News June 17.
The Thunder Horse platform, on a multitract development in the vicinity of Mississippi Canyon Block 822 in water depths of up to 6,050 feet, is capable of producing 250,000 barrels of oil per day and 200 million cubic feet of gas per day.
However, Thunder Horse’s actual “production profile” hinges on “well performance” and “how fast we are able to drill and connect new wells,” Chappell cautioned.
“We are making good progress,” he added. “First oil is an important milestone on the way to startup of the Thunder Horse field. We will be ramping up production in the coming months.”
Formal startup later
BP will announce the formal startup of Thunder Horse when field “commissioning” is finished and “we … achieve steady state operations,” Chappell said. The Thunder Horse field was discovered in 1999, and was designed to use the largest production drilling semi-submersible platform in the world. The platform weighs more than 50,000 tons and will produce from some of the highest temperature and highest-pressure wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
Thunder Horse and its estimated 1 billion barrels of recoverable oil became the development centerpiece for a massive pipeline system serving Thunder Horse and other large BP discoveries in the deepwater U.S. Gulf, including Atlantis and Mad Dog.
However, Thunder Horse development has been plagued with problems over the years, causing not only startup delays for Thunder Horse, but also for Atlantis due to concerns over the integrity of subsea equipment.
BP’s headaches began in 2003 when development drilling was temporarily suspended after a marine riser separated between a drilling rig and a production well about 6,000 feet below the ocean surface. The Transocean rig was drilling BP’s ninth development well at Thunder Horse when the riser separated in what industry experts said was a rare occurrence.
Initial startup set for ‘05
Thunder Horse missed its initial 2005 startup when Hurricane Dennis swept through the U.S. Gulf, purportedly causing damage to the platform and causing it to list 20 to 30 degrees, according to BP. However, the U.S. Minerals Management Service all but dismissed Dennis and its high winds as the cause of the listing. Nevertheless, BP postponed Thunder Horse production into 2006.
Later BP told analysts in a conference call that leaks in the manifold system would delay first production from late 2006 into early 2007, but didn’t specify the cause of the damage. The manifold, built by Houston-based FMC Technologies, is a massive subsea structure designed to send oil and gas from individual wells up toward the production platform. Reportedly, the structure could have been damaged during Hurricane Dennis.
One industry analyst theorized that the leaks might have come from “hydrogen embrittlement” of the welds, with the hydrogen coming from seawater that seeped in through cracks in the insulation. The insulation then may have been damaged as the manifolds, insulated in 2004, sat unused for an extended period on the sea floor.
Startup again was delayed when a series of tests revealed “metallurgical failure” in components of the field’s subsea system. As a precaution, BP said it would retrieve and replace all the subsea components it believed could be at risk. The company said the work would be done over the next year but did not expect first production from Thunder Horse before the middle of 2008. Analysts believed the fix would add tens of millions of dollars to the project. The production facility alone cost more than $1 billion.
Just a week after announcing its final startup target for Thunder Horse, BP announced postponement of first production from Atlantis, from year-end 2006 to the first quarter of 2007. Because the Atlantis project was at an earlier stage of subsea installation than Thunder Horse, BP said it had already taken the opportunity to retrieve and make precautionary modifications to the Atlantis manifolds. Production was actually brought online in October 2007 from a facility designed to process 200,000 barrels of oil per day and 180 million cubic feet of gas per day.
BP owns 75 percent of Thunder Horse and ExxonMobil 25 percent, while BP owns 56 percent of Atlantis and Australia’s BHP Billiton owns 44 percent.
The original name for this field was “Crazy Horse,” but the political correctness nazis at BP change the name to “Thunder Horse”.
That says it all. Great post.
I met a Schlumberger engineer who what at the site when they discovered it. Phenomenal.
Yahoo?
Where will it go? The Deer Run expansion just got shot down by the environazis. BP Whiting is having permitting problems.
To become even the slightest bit more independent, the USA needs refineries. Unrefined crude won’t squirt through a fuel injector nozzle.
The ‘Idle’ Oil Field Fallacy
By RED CAVANEY
June 20, 2008; Page A13
A bill introduced in Congress this week would “compel” oil and natural gas companies to produce from federal lands they are leasing. If only it were that easy to find and produce oil. Imagine, an act of Congress that could do what geology could not.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121391719487790187.html?mod=rss_opinion_main
Thats a lot of oil and gas pumped straight to the U.S., We should see a significant decrease in price in a week or two.... right?
Hard to believe that it would be stable with just two tethers. Unbelieveable.
The oil companies have always picked up the challenge. It’s mind boggleing that they can now drill at angles, therefore reducing the need for additional platforms. ANWR would be a snap, in fact you’d be probably hard pressed to find the oil drilling in an airplane, same as it’s hard to find strip minds.
Has McCain and others actually gone to these sites?
When we clear the nuts out of the way, we might see decreases in the future.
Greens Thwart Gasoline Production
By Steven Milloy
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=6C2A174B-055C-44B1-B5DB-F30B49860FFC
(snip)
The Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, successfully pressured the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to block ConocoPhillips’ expansion of its Roxana, Ill., gasoline refinery, which processes heavy crude oil from Canada, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The project would have expanded the volume of Canadian crude processed from 60,000 barrels per day to more than 500,000 barrels a day by 2015. After the Illinois EPA had approved the expansion, the green groups petitioned the federal EPA to block it, alleging ConocoPhillips wasn’t using the best available technology for reducing emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides.
Apparently, the plant’s planned 95 percent reduction in sulfur dioxide emissions and 25 percent reduction in nitrogen oxides wasn’t green enough.
(snip)
Meanwhile, in California, green groups are working through the state attorney general’s office to block the upgrade of the Chevron refinery in the city of Richmond. The $800 million upgrade essentially would expand the useable oil supply by permitting the refinery to process lower-quality, less-expensive crude oil.
I see on a number of threads you are desperately clinging to your personal political dogmas rather then learning anything about Energy production. This link will help. Read it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand
The problem here is Supply and Demand. All the various things you seem to think at work here (speculators, price gouging etc) are only possible in a market that suffers from inelasity of both supply and demand. Speculators can only speculate on the trend line. The trend line in Oil is for increasing demand and flat supply. Currently we are not doing anything to produce any significant change in that equation. Lifting the ban on various US Domestic Production would send a signal to the market that we are serious about increasing production.
So we have two choice. Significantly reduce our standard of living so we do not Demand so much energy. Significantly increase the production of Energy to meet our demands.
We need some "Fast Track" legislation for oil drilling and refinery building!
I thought I saw somewhere that the ban in many of these areas expires in 2012, not a huge leap into the future. Since new facilities coming on line and word of increased output, and ME countries storing oil offshore have no impact whatsoever, I have ruled out supply and demand. I we were to open up land today the market knows development is not instant or immanent. If the futures market trend isn't reversed then high prices and conservation will be all thats left to do.
BARDEX AWARDED THUNDER HORSE MOORING SYSTEM CONTRACT
http://www.bardex.com/news/020422.shtml
GOLETA, California, U.S.A., April 22, 2002
The Bardex mooring system {used on Thunder Horse} will consist of 16 hydraulically actuated 6800 kN (1530 kip) stall capacity Linear Chain Jack assemblies with chain stoppers and turndown sheave arranged in four groups (four at each corner of the rig), four Hydraulic Power Units (one at each corner), a programmable logic controller assembly (PLC), and four local Control Stations in control cabins (one at each corner). The mooring system will be an active system capable of maneuvering the PDQ unit over the subsea wells.
Note: 6,800 kN equals 1.53 million pounds of force.
We would be thwarting the “will of the people” with executive orders from the president.
The people have voted in socialists, and socialism we will have. Socialism’s best definition is “equally shared misery for all”. I hope people get sick of it and change their minds. Going hungry to heat your house and fill your tank just might be the tipping point. We’ll see in November.
Obviously not wasting investing enough hours per day on this website. The topic has been under discussion for a couple weeks.
No. The oil has never been in contact with atmospheric CO2. This also assumes biotic origin, which is a different fringe discussion.
But where did all the carbon come from?...............
That is fringe discussion material. Somebody might happen along who is interested in that.
British Petroleum is drilling, but the U. S. can’t?
Congress is truly wrong.
Contact your Congress critters to let them know that you are tired of high gas prices.
Chevron in Pascagoula is expanding right up the street from me as we speak.
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