Chevron Corp.’s Tigris and Anchor platforms will operate in 4,000-5,000 ft of water about 140 miles offshore Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. Wood Group has confirmed the pre-front-end engineering design are among the first two work orders handed down by the operator as part of a 10-year master services agreement that will include multiple locations across Chevron’s onshore and offshore asset portfolio.
Wood Group has worked with Chevron on several projects in the gulf including Jack-St. Malo and Blind Faith in addition to the Gorgon project offshore Australia.
Chevron was reported to be considering a semisubmersible design for both its Anchor discovery and the multifield cluster known as Tigris, according to a report published by Subsea UK in October 2016. Both projects will likely be designed in tandem with a capacity of up to 100,000 b/d.
The Anchor discovery was successfully appraised in the Lower Tertiary Wilcox trend in October 2015 (OGJ Online, Oct. 29, 2015).
In recent months, Chevron has focused on megaprojects in Australia including Gorgon and Wheatstone (OGJ Online, Mar. 29, 2017; Oct. 31, 2016). In the Gulf of Mexico, Chevron’s Big Foot TLP has pushed production back to 2018 as a result of tendon equipment failures (OGJ Online, June 2, 2015).
Chevron’s Tigris prospect in the northwest Keathley Canyon area includes the Tiber, Guadalupe, and Gibson discoveries, and will most likely be designed as a hub development according to the operator’s quarterly filings from second quarter 2015. The company also made its Sicily discovery in Keathley Canyon Block 814 in late 2014 that could be under consideration for future development. At the time of the discovery, partner Hess Corp. estimated gross resource potential for the Sicily wildcat to be 300-400 million bbl of oil.
The Sicily discovery well was drilled to a depth of 33,749 ft. Chevron holds a 50% working interest in the well, Hess holds 25%, with an unnamed partner owning the remaining stake.
Before Wood Group was selected for topsides development at Anchor and Tigris, Jay Johnson, Chevron executive vice-president, upstream, told investors on a conference call that the company was focused on lowering facility costs in terms of drilling expense and designed the right-sized equipment. This is in line with most deepwater operators since mid-2014 (OGJ, May 1, 2017, p. 38). The company was chasing higher capital efficiency with a longer plateau of production.
The pair of platforms will lie between Chevron’s Blind Faith with a 65,000-b/d capacity and the giant Jack-St. Malo, designed to produce up to 170,000 b/d from Lower Tertiary reservoirs.
Contact Tayvis Dunnahoe at [email protected].
