Chevron has reported that production has begun from its Anchor floating production unit (FPU) in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico (GoM).
The company boasts that Anchor is the first deepwater development to deploy 20,000-psi technology. The new facility has a design capacity of 75,000 bbl/d of oil and 28 MMcf/d of natural gas. The FPU area is 42,080 sq ft and 25 stories high (taller than the statue of liberty).
The Anchor development will consist of seven subsea wells tied into the Anchor FPU, located in the Green Canyon area, about 140 miles (225 km) offshore Louisiana, in water depths of about 5,000 ft (1,524 m). Total potentially recoverable resources from the Anchor Field are estimated to be up to 440 MMboe.
Chevron U.S.A. Inc. is the operator (62.86% interest), along with partner/co-owner TotalEnergies E&P USA Inc. (37.14% working interest).
Chevron expects Anchor to produce for up to 30 years.
At the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) earlier this year in Houston, Tim Mitchell, Anchor Project Director, said the project teams were faced with an “adaptive challenge” to enable the 20k technology under such circumstances – to qualify the equipment, obtain regulatory approvals, and move the technology forward from prototype to production within “a cost and schedule that would deliver our overall business objectives.” A key example of rising to meet the “adaptive challenge” was the development of a timeline and framework that ensured consistent delivery of “high-quality deliverables,” which in turn enabled the project to consistently move forward. Read more from that OTC presentation here.
This time last year Chevron’s Anchor production platform had begun its journey from the Kiewit Offshore Services facility to its field development site in the Green Canyon area.
In 2019, Chevron sanctioned the $5.7-billion Anchor project, which it said at the time marked the industry’s first deepwater high-pressure development to achieve a final investment decision.
