On December 2, 2014, Chevron announced that crude oil and natural gas production has begun at the Jack/St. Malo project in the Lower Tertiary trend, deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
The Jack and St. Malo fields are located within 25 miles (40 km) of each other in approximately 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of water in the Walker Ridge area, approximately 280 miles (450 km) south of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The fields were co-developed with subsea completions flowing back to a single host, semi-submersible floating production unit located between the fields. The facility is the largest of its kind in the Gulf of Mexico and has a production capacity of 170,000 barrels of oil and 42 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, with the potential for future expansion.
The Jack and St. Malo fields are among the largest in the Gulf of Mexico. They were discovered in 2004 and 2003, respectively, and production from the first development stage is expected to ramp up over the next several years to a total daily rate of 94,000 barrels of crude oil and 21 million cubic feet of natural gas.
With a planned production life of more than 30 years, current technologies are anticipated to recover in excess of 500 million oil-equivalent barrels. Successive development phases, which could employ enhanced recovery technologies, may enable substantially increased recovery at the fields.