The Appomattox offshore project is expected to increase Shell’s production by approximately 60% once it starts producing in 2020, says a GlobalData report.
Entitled ‘US Offshore Deepwater Gulf of Mexico Appomattox Project Panorama – Oil and Gas Upstream Analysis Report‘, the report describes that the Appomattox project will be the first deepwater project in the Gulf of Mexico’s Norphlet formation and will also have one of the biggest platforms in this area with a capacity of 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
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Shell is the leading operator in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico and the only oil company with commercial deepwater discoveries in the Norphlet formation. Approved in July 2015, the project is being developed at an estimated cost of more than $4bn.
The project will include a semi-submersible, four-column production host platform, a concept similar to the operator’s Olympus platform. The host platform will be tie-back to the Appomattox and Vicksburg fields.
The report further mentions that the newly discovered Rydberg and Gettysburg fields can be tied-back to the platform in the coming years adding to the project’s total production. The future tie-backs are estimated to add approximately 800 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe) to resources in the area.
Multiple contracts for the project have been granted to some of the leading companies such as Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), which received a $300m contract to deliver the platform’s hull next year. A contract for the deepwater gas gathering operations was awarded to Williams Partners. Two drillships, the Noble Globetrotter I and Noble Don Tylor, will be used in the project development.
