Page 10: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2020)

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REGION GoM Outlook

Despite having been pronounced dead on several occasions, the Gulf of Mexico’s daily production rates are the highest they have ever been.

– LARS HERBST, BUREAU OF SAFETY AND

ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT

Source: BSEE mance and environmental stewardship, Herbst adds. Herbst says operators are taking advantage of existing infra-

According to William Turner, Vice President – US Gulf of structure and planning to use more subsea tieback facilities to

Mexico for Welligence Energy Analytics, a measure of opti- keep assets at or near full production. mism is apparent when it comes to offshore oil and gas activ- Projects with ?nal investment decisions (FIDs) and subsea ity in the Gulf of Mexico. tiebacks to existing facilities include Shell's Vicksburg (Ap- “Last year was one of the ?rst positive-looking years. There pomattox hub) and Power Nap (Olympus hub), BP's Atlantis was a lot of excitement, some building momentum and inter- Phase 3 (Atlantis hub) and Manuel (Na Kika hub) and Thun- est,” Turner says. “We’re seeing more activity that I think is a der Horse South 2 (Thunder Horse hub), Hess Corporation's result of the excitement building from last year.” Esox (Tubular Bells hub), Talos Energy's Bulleit (GC018

And there’s more good news, he says. platform), and Fieldwood Energy's Orlov/Troika (Bullwinkle “We’re starting to see evidence that costs bottomed out in platform) and Katmai (Tarantula platform) and Genovesa 2019. We’re seeing increasing rig rates. It’s still short-term, (Na Kika hub).

but we’ve seen some indication that costs across the board Herbst says operators are also focusing more effort on deep- have bottomed,” Turner says. “We’re looking for a pretty ex- water projects. Several new projects have completed the FID citing year.” process. Those projects include Hess’ ESOX-1, Talos Energy’s

During down cycles, companies tend to exit regions, so Bulleit, BP’s Atlantis Phase 3 and Manuel, Fieldwood En- a new company entering a region can signal a turnaround. ergy’s Orlov and Katmai, Murphy’s Khaleesi Mormont and

Petronas has farmed into a ?eld in the Gulf of Mexico. Samurai, and Chevron’s high-pressure Anchor. “In the years prior, we were just seeing exits. Now we’re The new production platforms with FIDs and planned seeing entrances,” Turner says. “It supports the theory that it’s installations with subsea tiebacks include BP's Argos, Shell's a strong case in the Gulf of Mexico for getting in at the bot- Vito, Murphy's King's Quay and Chevron's Anchor. tom of the costs and on the foreseeable increase in recovery in These new production hubs will add an estimated new pro- commodity prices.” cessing capacity of 345,000 b/d and 288 mmcf/d of gas be- 10 OFFSHORE ENGINEER OEDIGITAL.COM