Chevron has commenced water injection operations to increase oil and natural gas recovery at its Jack/St Malo and Tahiti deep-water projects in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The first water injection at the St Malo field marks Chevron's inaugural waterflood project in the deep-water Wilcox trend.

The project includes water injection facilities, two new production wells and two new injection wells.

This initiative is expected to contribute an additional 175mboe to the St Malo field's gross ultimate recovery.

The Jack/St Malo facility and the St Malo field lie approximately 280 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana, in waters around 7,000ft.

Since commencing production in 2014, Jack and St Malo have collectively yielded almost 400 million gross barrels of oil equivalent.

Chevron, via its subsidiary Union Oil Company of California, operates the St Malo field with a 51% interest.

Co-owners include MP Gulf of Mexico (25%); Equinor Gulf of Mexico (21.5%); Exxon Mobil (1.25%); and Eni Petroleum US (1.25%).

At the Tahiti facility, situated roughly 190 miles south of New Orleans in around 4,100ft of water, Chevron has begun water injection into its first deep-water Gulf producer-to-injector conversion wells.

The enhancement included the installation of a new water injection manifold and a 20,000ft flexible water injection flowline.

Since operations began in 2009, the Tahiti facility has been strengthened by multiple development projects, recently surpassing cumulative production of 500 million gross barrels of oil-equivalent.

Chevron said it continues to explore advanced drilling, completion and production technologies to potentially further increase recoveries at the Tahiti and Jack/St Malo projects.

Chevron U.S.A operates the Tahiti facility with a 58% interest. Co-owners Equinor Gulf of Mexico and TotalEnergies E&P USA hold 25% and 17% stakes, respectively.

Chevron Americas exploration & production president Bruce Niemeyer said: “Delivery of these two projects maximises returns from our existing resource base and contributes toward growing our production to 300,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day in the US Gulf of Mexico by 2026.”

Recently, a Chevron-led consortium submitted a revised development plan for the Aphrodite gas field to the Cypriot Government, outlining a $4bn investment.