Personnel moves and promotions

May 15, 2000
The supermajors that are leading the charge into the Gulf of Mexico's deep water are shuffling their organizations to high-grade that effort (see related story, p. 22).

The supermajors that are leading the charge into the Gulf of Mexico's deep water are shuffling their organizations to high-grade that effort (see related story, p. 22).

BP Amoco PLC has formed a Gulf of Mexico deepwater oil and gas transportation project team. The group's mission is to deliver options to bring to shore the company's significant oil and gas reserves in the southern Mississippi Canyon, the southern Atwater Valley, and the Green Canyon areas of the gulf. Currently, there is no pipeline infrastructure in these areas to transport oil and gas from these major discoveries.

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Jerry F. Wenzel has been selected to head this team, which will be Houston-based. Wenzel is a 25-year veteran of Amoco Corp. and BP Amoco and has worked in many locales in the areas of production, reservoir, and corporate operations. He moved to Amoco's deepwater unit in the mid-1990s and built the development group for Amoco's deepwater unit, having worked on a variety of offshore projects. He currently serves as manager of export for BPAmoco Deepwater Development.

"BP Amoco is committed to having transportation systems in place to move its deepwater oil and gas reserves to market," Wenzel said. "The project team is working along two tracks: one looking at oil transportation issues, the other looking at gas pipeline options. We expect to develop a set of recommendations and begin execution of the project in the next year."

In line with this two-track approach, two other team leaders, reporting to Wenzel, are expected to be named shortly: one for oil transportation issues, the other for gas pipeline options.

"Our expectation is that the first segments of the system will be available for use as early as 2003, when the first of the fields under development is ready to begin production, Wenzel said.

"We estimate the cost of providing the needed infrastructure to be in excess of $1 billion," said David H. Welch, President, BP Amoco Gulf of Mexico Deepwater Development. "We are initiating this effort on a 100% BP Amoco-funded basis to allow us to direct the pace of this work, giving us greater assurance that the transportation option(s) selected will be available when our new discoveries begin producing."

BP Amoco recently let contracts for initial engineering on the Crazy Horse and Holstein oil and gas development projects in the deepwater gulf (OGJ, May 8, 2000, Newsletter, p. 9).