By the OGJ Online Staff
HOUSTON, Sept. 19 -- Shell Exploration & Production Co. plans to develop its Manatee project in the Gulf of Mexico via tieback to the Bullwinkle platform on Green Canyon Block 65.
Manatee will be a two-well, $80 million development on Green Canyon 155, 160 miles southwest of New Orleans. It will tie back 5 miles to Shell's Angus subsea manifold on Green Canyon 113, and from there will be transported to the Bullwinkle platform for processing and export.
Manatee is the fourth subsea production system to be tied back to Bullwinkle. The others were Rocky in 1996, Troika in 1997, and Angus in 1999.
Production from Manatee is expected during the third quarter of 2002. Shell said production rates could reach 25,000 b/d of oil. Manatee will recover more than 12 million boe, estimates the company.
Shell used Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc.'s Ocean Concord semisubmersible to drill the well in April of 1998. The well was sidetracked three times.
Target reserves -- mostly 33°-gravity oil with 1.12 wt % of sulfur -- are in turbidite sands at 16,800-17,100 ft subsea. The average net thickness is 100 ft in 2 reservoirs, said the company.
