Platforms

Royal Dutch Shell plc has ramped up production from the second Mars platform in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the company’s seventh and largest floating platform in the U.S. offshore.

The deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM), and in particular Keathley Canyon, should add substantial U.S. reserves by the second half of this year when the Lucius platform ramps up, a major stakeholder said Wednesday.

An eight-month investigation has concluded that a fatal explosion and fire during a construction project last November on a Gulf of Mexico (GOM) oil production platform operated by Black Elk Energy Offshore Operations LLC occurred after contractors failed to follow standard safety practices.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) was reporting Friday afternoon that an area of low pressure off the Yucatan Peninsula in the southwestern Gulf of Mexico could threaten Gulf of Mexico (GOM) energy interests. Several companies had reported that they had begun evacuations of nonessential personnel.

Northern Natural Gas, the operator of offshore Texas Matagorda Offshore Pipeline System (MOPS), said it was requiring the shut-in of all MOPS platforms by Tuesday afternoon due to potential hurricane activity in the Gulf of Mexico. Northern said it was beginning allocation of all scheduled MOPS volumes starting with the Intraday 1 nominations cycle for Tuesday’s gas day but anticipates a return to service Friday for those points based on forecasts of the storm’s path.

The Interior Department issued a new directive Friday to oil and gas lessees and operators requiring them to submit information that addresses prevention measures for a possible blowout, and then followed up Monday with the swearing in of Michael R. Bromwich who will take over the restructuring of the Minerals Management Service into the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOE).

Two natural gas producing platforms in the area of the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) affected by the ongoing oil spill have stopped production, according to the Minerals Management Service. And a firm that tracks international tanker traffic has noted a slowdown in the region.

The stumbling block to more offshore oil and natural gas drilling is not the environment or the economy, but rather it’s the view of platforms from shorelines, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) told a House hearing Tuesday. He recommended that lawmakers require companies to make their rigs more eye appealing, as is already being done in some coastal communities in California.

The deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GOM) Tahiti project, one of the largest platforms of its kind, will be delayed about a year because of defective shackles in the mooring system, according to project sponsor Chevron Corp. First production is now expected by 3Q2009; it was originally scheduled to ramp up by mid-2008. Estimated production is expected to be about 70 MMcf/d of gas and 125,000 b/d of oil. Construction of the massive project began in late 2005, but a contractor discovered the mooring system problems in June after finding a problem on a similar installation for another producer (see Daily GPI, June 29).