Shell buys GoM deep-water vessel

Shell Offshore Inc. and its affiliate Shell E and P Offshore Services B.V., will exercise a contractual right to purchase the Turritella floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel from SBM Offshore. The vessel is contracted for the Stones deep-water development in the Gulf of Mexico, which began production last year. The Stones is scheduled to deliver some 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) by the end of 2017. The Turritella has a daily production capacity of about 60,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of natural gas, and fits within Shell’s global, deep-water portfolio, which includes operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, and Malaysia. Shell has three more GoM deep-water projects under construction (Appomattox, Kaikias, and Coulomb Phase 2) as well as options for more subsea tiebacks and Vito, a potential, new hub in the region. (Source: Shell Offshore 07/11/17) Gulf Coast Note: The Stones development is the world’s deepest oil and gas project, operating in about 9,500 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico. The FPSO facility connects to subsea infrastructure, which produces oil and gas from reservoirs some 30,000 feet below sea level. The Stones development is Shell’s second producing field in the Lower Tertiary geologic frontier of the GoM following Perdido in 2010.