First Jones-Act Purpose-Built Shuttle-Tanker
The next MTS Houston Section luncheon will be held on April 28, 2011 and will feature a presentation by Carlos Ferraz Mastrangelo with Petrobras America. Mr. Mastrangelo will be discussing Petrobras’s decision to use a shuttle-tanker for its oil export system at the Cascade and Chinook developments. While the combination of shuttle-tanker and FPSO is common in the North Sea, Brazil and other parts of the world, it is a first in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Despite the impressive pipeline infrastructure currently available in the U.S. Gulf, none of it reaches as far as the location of the Cascade and Chinook fields, at 160 miles south of the Louisiana coast, in the deep waters of the Walker Ridge quadrant.
Petrobras Hits in Deepwater GOM
Petrobras announced the discovery of oil and gas in ultra-deep waters in the Central Gulf of Mexico, in the U.S., via its Petrobras America Inc. subsidiary, based in Houston, Texas. The discovery was made via the Stones # 3 well, drilled to perform the exploratory assessment of the Stones discovery, which is operated by Shell and located in Block WR 508, in ultra-deep Walker Ridge Quadrant waters. Petrobras America Inc. holds a 25% stake there. The remaining partners, in addition to Shell (35%), are Marathon and ENI, with 25%, and 15%, respectively. The Stones # 3 well is located at a depth of 2,286 meters from the water line and reached a total depth of 8,960 meters under the sea bed, finding oil in multiple reservoirs.
