Dominion Exploration and Production said it started gas production from the Rigel and Seventeen Hands deepwater fields, located about 120 miles southeast of New Orleans in Mississippi Canyon Blocks 296 and 299, respectively, and expects production to reach 160 MMcf/d by the end of the month.

Dominion operates both fields and owns 53% of Rigel (Mariner Energy and Newfield also are owners) and 38% of Seventeen Hands (Murphy Oil and Hydro Gulf of Mexico LLC are the other owners). Rigel is in 5,200 feet and the Seventeen Hands field is in 5,800 feet of water. Both fields employ subsea tiebacks to preexisting infrastructure owned by Chevron.

Kevin Guilbeau, senior vice president and general manager of Dominion E&P’s offshore business unit, said Chevron’s repair work to the host platform, Viosca Knoll 900, enabled production to begin. “Now that superstructure is restored and the tiebacks are complete, we are able to commence production from these highly porous and permeable reservoirs,” said Guilbeau.

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