Uchenna Izundu
International Editor
LONDON, Jan. 8 -- Petrobras America has let a $50 million contract to Subsea 7 Inc. to design and install power cables, control umbilicals, and 16 jumpers for the deepwater Cascade and Chinook oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico. The fields are expected to start production in 2010.
Subsea 7 will handle 70 km of power cables, and it will use of its deepwater umbilical installation vessels in late 2009 and early 2010. "The final selection of vessel will be dependant on the size and weight of product to be installed following optimization by Petrobras and Subsea 7," the company said.
A floating production, storage, and offloading vessel will be used for the first time in the gulf to bring Cascade and Chinook onstream. At least two subsea wells in Cascade and one subsea well in Chinook will each be drilled to 27,000 ft and tied back to the FPSO. Based on reservoir performance, the development plan could be expanded to include additional wells on each unit.
Both fields are in Block 425 of the Walter Ridge area in 2,300-3,000 m of water. Petrobras is operator with 50% of Cascade and 66.67% of Chinook. Devon Energy Corp. owns the remaining 50% of Cascade, and Total E&P USA Inc. owns 33.33% of Chinook.
Contact Uchenna Izundu at [email protected].
