Tomorrow’s oil

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AUGUST: The Perdido Spar unit heads out into the Gulf of Mexico on the final leg of its journey to Alaminos Canyon.

Shell's massive Perdido Spar finished its mammoth global journey last month. Oil & Gas Middle East chronicles the amazing upstream project which culminated in the topside installation of the 50 000 tonne floating structure in March.

May 2008: From Finland to the Gulf of Mexico

The race is on to produce tomorrow's oil from new and more hostile frontier environments. The construction of the hull of one of the world's deepest oil production facilities is now complete, and in May it started to make its 8200 mile journey from the shipyard in Pori, Finland, to Ingleside, Texas.

The massive steel spar structure, which is nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower, and weighs as much as 10 000 family cars, forms part of Shell's most ambitious deepwater offshore oil and gas development ever undertaken and will be the world's deepest spar production facility.

Following its departure from Pori, the hull travelled by transport barge to Ingleside, Texas, where it was outfitted for offshore installation. Its journey to the deep sea and its final frontier destination, in block 857 of the Alaminos Canyon took place nearly a year a half later.

Perdido will be capable of delivering 130 000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

August 2008: Perdido heads to ultra deepwaters

Shell and co-owners BP and Chevron came one step closer to bringing much-needed new energy resources to the United States in August 2008, when the Perdido Spar departed Ingleside on its way to its final work site, Alaminos Canyon Block 857, in the ultra deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The spar, was towed 160 nautical miles over a three-day period. The spar unit was then upended - rotated from a horizontal to a vertical floating position - before being secured by nine polyester / chain mooring lines to the anchor piles on the seabed, which were already installed on site.

All this is took place in approximately 8000 feet of water, making Perdido the world's deepest oil and gas spar production facility. It will provide production processing for three fields, namely Great White, Silvertip and Tobago Fields.

Perdido is on track to begin production around the turn of the decade, having slipped from this year to 2010 for start-up.

December 2008: World's deepest offshore well

Shell set a world water depth record in drilling and completing a subsea well 9356 feet (1.77 miles) below the water's surface in the Silvertip Field approximately 200 miles from Houston in the Gulf of Mexico.

This achievement represents a leap forward in applying sophisticated technologies in a harsh environment of rough terrain and very high pressures, accessible only by remotely operated vehicles.

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