Shell said it will exercise a contractual right to purchase the Turritella floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel from SBM Offshore.
The FPSO is a joint-venture (JV) owned by SBM Offshore with 55% interest, Mitsubishi Corporation with 30% interest and Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK Line) with 15% interest. The transaction comprises a total cash consideration to the JV of c. US$ 1 billion.
The vessel is contracted for the Stones deep-water development in the Gulf of Mexico, which began production last year. The Stones development is the world’s deepest offshore oil and gas project and is scheduled to deliver approximately 50,000-barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) by the end of this year.
Shell and SBM will work over the next several months to transition the ownership and operations of the vessel to Shell affiliates.
The Turritella FPSO has a daily production capacity of approximately 60,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of natural gas.
Currently, Shell has three additional Gulf of Mexico deep-water projects under construction – Appomattox, Kaikias, and Coulomb Phase 2 – as well as options for additional subsea tiebacks and Vito, a potential, new hub in the region.