Flow starts from Devil's Tower satellites

Dec. 20, 2005
Dominion Exploration & Production Inc. reported first production from three subsea wells in deepwater Triton and Goldfinger oil fields, 140 miles southeast of New Orleans, on Mississippi Canyon Blocks 771, 772, and 728 in the Gulf of Mexico.

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 20 -- Dominion Exploration & Production Inc. reported first production from three subsea wells in deepwater Triton and Goldfinger oil fields, 140 miles southeast of New Orleans, on Mississippi Canyon Blocks 771, 772, and 728 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The wells are tied back to the Devils Tower dry-tree spar in 5,610 ft of water on neighboring Mississippi Canyon Block 773.

Dominion's partner, Pioneer Natural Resources Co., Irving, Tex., reported that production from the fields has reached 40,000 boe/d. By yearend, Pioneer said production is expected to reach 50,000 boe/d as production is optimized via multizone completions in the Triton wells.

Dominion E&P made the Goldfinger oil discovery in 5,423 ft of water in early 2004 (OGJ Online, Apr. 14, 2004). It drilled the Triton discovery well, MC 772 No. 4, in 2002 and an appraisal well, MC 728 No. 1, in 2003.

Triton and Goldfinger production flows to the spar via insulated 6-in. by 10-in. pipe-in-pipe flowlines. Devils Tower is owned by Williams Cos. Inc. and operated by Dominion E&P.

The 6-mile tieback was accomplished with 3.5 days of production shut-in time on the spar. The wells were ready for commissioning a few days before Hurricane Katrina struck in late August, Dominion E&P said.

"Since then, sustained production from Devils Tower has been limited by damage to downstream infrastructure owned by other companies," the company reported. "Now that more downstream infrastructure has become available, the subsea wells have been brought on line."

Dominion E&P owns a 75% working interest in Devils Tower, including the Triton and Goldfinger tiebacks. Pioneer owns the remaining 25%.