Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp. said it has received first production from the first two of three subsea wells in its Boomvang field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The wells began production last week at a rate of 50 MMcf/d and Boomvang is expected to ramp up to a peak rate of 160 MMcf/d of gas and 32,000 b/d of oil by the second quarter 2003.

Kerr-McGee operates Boomvang with 30% interest. Other working interest owners are Enterprise Oil, 50%, and Ocean Energy Inc., 20%. Enterprise’s interests were recently acquired by Shell. Located in 3,450 feet of water, the Boomvang area, which includes East Breaks blocks 642, 643 and 688, was developed with the “twin” of the world’s first truss spar installed at the Nansen field, nine miles away. The new spar design, featuring an open truss structure, enhances the spar’s stability while reducing size and cost. Estimated reserves at Boomvang are in the range of 70 million to 100 million boe.

Boomvang is the first of several deepwater Gulf gas and oil projects scheduled to come on line this year. Nansen began production in January and is expected to reach a peak production of 80 MMcf/d of gas and 40,000 b/d of oil. Kerr McGee’s Navajo project in East Breaks 690 is expected to come online this month with 50 MMcf/d of production. Other projects due this year include Nexen’s Aspen project in Green Canyon 243 with 25 MMcf/d of gas production, the King Kong/Yosemite project in Green Canyon 472/473/517/516 with 160 MMcf/d of peak production, Marathon’s Camden Hill project in Mississippi Canyon 348 with 50 MMcf/d of peak production, TotalFinaElf’s Aconcagua project in Mississippi Canyon 305 with peak production of 250 MMcf/d, BP’s King’s Peak with 200 MMcf/d of gas production and BP’s Mt. Horn project with 68 MMcf/d of gas production and 65,000 b/d of oil at its peak.

Tulsa-based Williams said Friday it has begun receiving additional volumes of oil and natural gas from Kerr-McGee’s Boomvang field into new deepwater pipelines that were built in the western Gulf of Mexico late last year. Boomvang production marks the third source of supply for the pipelines, which have a design capacity of transporting up to 70,000 bbl/d and up to 360 MMcf/d. Neighboring developments in the Nansen field came online in January and from the Navajo field in May. Approximately 150 MMcf/d and 20,000 bbl/d are already flowing into the pipelines from Nansen and Navajo production, also operated by Kerr-McGee.

“A lot of good things are happening in the Gulf,” said Phil Wright, CEO of Williams energy services unit, which is in charge of the project. “There’s a strong likelihood that we’ll see full utilization of our new pipeline capacity on this project by next summer.”

In total, deepwater production and growing imports of liquefied natural gas this year will add about 0.9 Bcf/d of supply to the domestic market, according to a recent report by Arlington, VA-based consulting firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co. (see Daily GPI, June 10 ). By the fourth quarter, FBR said the incremental supply additions from deepwater production and LNG should reach 1.4 Bcf/d compared to deliveries in the first quarter of this year.

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