Shell’s Perdido Development, the world's deepest offshore oil platform, won the ENR Energy Construction Project of the Year award at the Platts Global Energy Awards Ceremony on December 3, 2009. In addition, Shell was a finalist in three other categories. Members of the Shell project management team as well as chief scientists were at the ceremony to accept the award.
Shell designed the Perdido host spar, a floating production facility, which is jointly owned by Shell (35%, operator), Chevron (37.5%), and BP (27.5%). The regional development is located in about 8,000 feet of water in an isolated sector of the Gulf of Mexico and will act as a hub for and enable development of three fields: Great White, Tobago and Silvertip. The project has already set a world water depth record in drilling and completing a subsea well 9,356 feet (1.77 miles) below the water's surface with plans to drill an even deeper well at 9,627 feet. First production is expected in early 2010.
An impartial panel of international energy experts, including energy ministers, national regulators, past and present heads of major energy companies, and leading academics and legislators selected Perdido as the winner of ENR Energy Construction Project of the Year.
"When we bought the Perdido leases in 1996, we had just installed the Mars platform in 3,000 feet of water. The technology did not yet exist for 8,000 feet, yet we went out knowing that we could develop it when we got there. What I'm most proud of, though, is that we have had no lost time injuries over the life of the project," said Project Manager Dale Snyder.
(www.shell.com)