Woodside Energy has let a contract to Subsea 7 SA to provide subsea installation services for the deepwater Gulf of Mexico Trion development.
Trion is a greenfield oil and gas development that would represent the first oil production from Mexico’s deepwater. The field lies about 30 km south of the US-Mexico border and 180 km away from the Mexican coastline in the Perdido Fold Belt, at a water depth of 2,600 m.
Trion development involves a wet tree subsea system connected to an infield floating production unit (FPU). Subsea7 will be responsible for the engineering, construction, and installation of the subsea umbilicals, risers, and flowlines, as well as the associated subsea architecture, the service provider said in a release Mar. 14.
The resource will be developed through a floating production unit (FPU) with an oil production capacity of 100,000 b/d. The FPU will be connected to a floating storage and offloading (FSO) vessel with a capacity of 950,000 bbl of oil (OGJ Online, Jan. 8, 2024). First oil is targeted for 2028.
Project management and engineering for Subsea7’s work will begin immediately from its offices in the US and Mexico. Offshore activities are expected to take place between 2026 and 2027.
The service provider values the contract at $300-500 million.
Woodside is operator at Trion (60%) with partner PEMEX Exploración y Producción (40%).
Execution phase activities
In June 2023, Woodside took final investment decision (FID) to proceed with the Trion resource development and was granted approval from the Mexican Ministry for Energy for its social impact assessment in February this year (OGJ Online, June 23, 2023; Feb. 14, 2024).
Execution phase activities are progressing.
In addition to the recent contract with Subsea7, Woodside has executed Trion project development contracts to HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (FPU engineering, procurement, and construction), Transocean (rig contract), SBM Offshore (FPU and floating storage offloading (FSO) installation), and OneSubsea UK (subsea trees), Eseasa Offshore SA de CV (shore base facilities and services).
