By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, July 19 -- El Paso Energy Partners LP said Thursday it has installed the Prince tension leg platform in 1,450 ft of water on Ewing Bank Block 1003 in the US Gulf of Mexico.
El Paso owns and managed the design and construction of the TLP and related oil and gas pipelines at Prince field, about 120 miles south of New Orleans. Oil output will begin later this quarter via the Poseidon pipeline, of which El Paso owns 36%.
The company said the platform will aggregate production from future oil and gas developments in the Ewing Bank and Green Canyon areas of the deepwater trend.
The Prince platform includes the first mini-TLP hull constructed to support producing wellheads and has a displacement of 14,400 tons, a hull weight of 3,500 tons, and a payload of 6,000 tons.
The deck and facilities include a three-level, 50,000-sq-ft deck with a capacity of 50,000 b/d of oil and 80 MMcfd of gas, as well as the capacity to accommodate a 1,200-hp workover or completion rig and future subsea well tiebacks.
The design of the Prince TLP features a passive spring tensioner rather than a conventional hydraulic system to support the wellheads. El Paso said this is the first time this has been used on a facility suitable for development of small to midsize fields.
El Paso Energy Partners owns and operates five gas and oil pipelines and six production handling platforms in the gulf, salt dome storage facilities with 6.7 bcf of working gas capacity in Mississippi, a 450-mile coalbed methane gathering system in Alabama, and 600 miles of gas liquids lines and three fractionation plants in south Texas.