The Jack/St. Malo platform in the US Gulf of Mexico

Oil and natural gas production started from the partner-operated Jack/St. Malo project in the US Gulf of Mexico. Statoil’s expected production from the combined fields is 23,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day at peak production.

The Jack/St. Malo project in the US Gulf of Mexico is the first of five major Statoil US offshore fields that will begin production over the next few years.

The addition of production from Jack/St. Malo is an important building block of Statoil’s plan to have more than a four-fold increase in offshore production – to over 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day – from the US Gulf of Mexico by 2020. This would make Statoil one of the largest producers in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We are very pleased to see production begin of these high-value barrels at Jack/St. Malo,” said Statoil US offshore senior vice president Jason Nye. “This large, complex project was delivered on time and on budget—which is world-class execution.”

The Jack and St. Malo fields are located within 25 miles (40 km) of each other in approximately 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of water in the Walker Ridge area, approximately 280 miles (450 km) south of New Orleans, Louisiana.

The fields were co-developed with subsea completions flowing back to a single host, semi-submersible floating production unit located between the fields, with a production capacity of 170,000 barrels of oil and 42.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and with the capability for future expansion.

Crude oil will be transported 137 miles to the Green Canyon 19 Platform via the Jack/St. Malo Oil Export Pipeline, and then onto refineries along the Gulf Coast. The pipeline is the first large-diameter, ultra-deepwater pipeline in the Walker Ridge area.

Total production from the two fields is expected to eventually ramp up to 94,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Statoil’s expected production from the combined fields is about 23,000 barrels of oil/day at peak production.

What’s important to acknowledge is this field is Statoil’s entry into the emerging Paleogene Wilcox trend,” Nye adds. “This trend is characterised by large in-place volumes and lower recovery rates, and industry knowledge about production in this trend is in its very early days. However, we believe that we can add significant production volume in the years ahead through the application of technology and increased oil recovery expertise.”

Tags: Chevron Corporation, Statoil