Shell Offshore and MOEX North America, a subsidiary of Mitsui Oil Exploration, have taken the final investment decision (FID) to execute phase one of the Kaikias deep-water project in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Kaikias will produce oil and gas through a subsea tie-back to the nearby Shell-operated Ursa production hub.
“ Kaikias is an example of a competitive and capital efficient deep-water project using infrastructure already in place,” said Andy Brown , Upstream director of Royal Dutch Shell. “ The team has done a great job to reduce the total cost by around 50% by simplifying the design and using lessons learned from previous subsea developments.”
The project will be developed in two phases with phase one expected to start production in 2019. The first phase of development includes three wells which are designed to produce up to 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) at peak rates.
Kaikias, located approximately 210 kilometers from the Louisiana coast, is estimated to contain more than 100 million barrels of oil equivalent recoverable resources.
Shell is the operator and has an 80% working interest, and MOEX NA owns the remaining 20% working interest.