Royal Dutch Shell PLC has started production from its Cardamom development on Garden Banks Block 427, about 225 miles southwest of New Orleans in the Gulf of Mexico.
Oil from the Cardamom subsea development is piped through Shell's Auger tension-leg platform, from which the discovery well was drilled in 2,720 ft of water. The completed subsea system includes five well expandable manifolds, a dual 8-in. flowline, and eight well umbilicals. When Cardamom field reaches full production of 50,000 boe/d, the Auger TLP's capacity will increase to 130,000 boe/d.
The Cardamom reservoir lies under thick salt layers more than 4 miles below the sea floor. Shell says the reservoir initially went undetected by conventional seismic surveys, but advancements in seismic technology enabled the company to make the discovery in 2010 (OGJ Online, June 9, 2011).
Cardamom is the second major deepwater facility Shell has brought online in the gulf this year following the start-up of Mars B in February. It marks Auger's seventh subsea development since production from the platform launched in 1994. Over the past several years Auger been modified with additional subsea receiving equipment, an upgrade of an existing process train, and weight mitigation that increases the liquid handling, cooling, and production capacity of the host facility, Shell says.
Shell's activity in the gulf also includes the ultradeepwater Stones project currently under construction (OGJ Online, Aug. 23, 2013); frontend engineering and design for the Appomattox project; and a recent discovery at its Rydberg well in the Norphlet play (OGJ Online, July 15, 2014). Shell also discovered oil at its Kaikias well in the Mars basin, which the company says will require further appraisal in 2015.
Elsewhere, Shell in August started oil production from its Bonga North West deepwater development offshore Nigeria (OGJ Online, Aug. 6, 2014); and made a gas discovery at its Marjoram-1 deepwater well in Malaysia, where it says the Gumusut-Kakap deepwater platform is also on track for production this year (OGJ Online, Aug. 26, 2014).