Page 12: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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REGIONAL REPORT North America

THE U.S. OUTLOOK

Deepwater Producton Rising

BY JENNIFER PALLANICH urrently one in every ? ve bar- the total GoM production. The 37 facili- the same two decades while deepwater rels produced in the United ties still represented only 1% of the total gas production has remained ? at. About

States comes from the Gulf facilities producing at that time, which 50,000 wells have been drilled on the

Cof Mexico (GoM), and 88% was 2,118. shelf compared to about 5,000 wells of that output ? ows from reservoirs in “The change is because oil explora- in deepwater, where production began water depths greater than 500 feet. tion has moved to deepwater areas,” An- about 45 years ago.

In 2016 the GoM produced 575 mil- gelle says. “The Gulf is changing. There Optimism in the GoM’s resources is lion barrels of oil, and in 2017 621 mil- are fewer production facilities, and those strong. Last year, Hess’s Stampede and lion barrels. In 2018, it was almost 639 facilities are larger, in deeper water and Chevron’s Big Foot tension-leg platform million barrels, according to Scott An- more technologically advanced.” developments went onstream. A host of gelle, director of Bureau of Safety and Angelle notes oil production on the pipeline and subsea tiebacks have begun

Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). In shelf, where production began 70 years producing or are slated to begin opera- 2017, 11 GoM facilities produced 50% ago, has declined 77% in the last 20 tion in 2019, and Shell’s Appomattox of all offshore oil, which was 1% of the years, while deepwater oil output has semisubmersible is slated to go online 974 producing facilities. A decade ago, risen by 198% in the same period. Gas later this year. it took 37 facilities to produce 50% of production on the shelf is down 92% in When Appomattox begins produc-

BSEE Houma district well operations inspec- tion unit supervisor Josh

Ladner (left) discusses the offshore inspection process with

BSEE director

Source: BSEE

Scott Angelle (center). 12 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM 1-17 OE 2019.indd 12 4/15/2019 11:35:37 AM