Earlier this week, oil giant Royal Dutch Shell started production from the Stones development, the world’s deepest offshore oil and gas project, located in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
The host facility for the Stones field is the Turritella floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) unit owned and operated by a Joint Venture owned by affiliated companies of SBM Offshore, Mitsubishi Corporation and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha in which SBM Offshore’s shareholding is 55%.
SBM Offshore on Friday launched a video of the FPSO that is now installed at the Stones development, located in 2,896 meters (9,500 feet) of water approximately 320 kilometers (200 miles) offshore Louisiana in the Walker Ridge area.
According to Shell, Stones is expected to produce around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) when fully ramped up at the end of 2017.
SBM Offshore also said on Friday that FPSO Turritella is formally on hire as of September 2, 2016, after achieving Commencement of Commercial Production (CoCP). The CoCP certificate was issued on September 8, 2016. The lease and operate contracts include an initial period of 10 years with future extension options up to a total of 20 years.
The FPSO’s production capacity is 60,000 barrels of fluids per day. It is specially designed to operate safely during storms. In the event of a severe storm or hurricane, it can disconnect and sail away from the field. Once the weather event has passed, the vessel would return and resume production.
Offshore Energy Today Staff