简介：壳牌本周宣布Perdido spar平台投产，它是世界上最深的海上钻井生产设施。该平台位于德克萨斯海岸外，8000英尺水深的墨西哥湾内。该超深水钻采设施的日产量即可以满足两百万家庭的年度能源需求。

Shell this week has commenced production of oil and natural gas from the Perdido spar, the world's deepest offshore drilling and production facility. Located 200 miles off the Texas coast in approximately 8,000 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico (GOM), the ultradeepwater facility will have a daily production equivalent to the yearly energy requirements for 2 million households.

Marvin Odum, Upstream Americas director, Shell Energy Resources Company, called Perdido, "an impressive project in a strong GOM portfolio that continues to grow," and added that the project presented a number of technical challenges. "Shell's team used its expertise to open this new frontier and confront complex reservoir characteristics, extreme marine conditions, and record water depth pressures," Odum said.

                                The drill rig on the Perdido platform.
From a reservoir perspective, the project is significant because it marks the first GOM commercial production from the Lower Tertiary, in a geologic trend known as the Paleogene. "This trend has complex and relatively low pressure reservoirs, which required us to develop and employ 15,000-hp electrical submersible pumps to take about 2,000 psi of hydrostatic back pressure off the reservoir to produce more oil at higher rates," said Dale Snyder, Perdido project manager. "This is one of the technologies deployed that may have applications in many Paleogene areas across the GOM, and opens the door for the industry."

To maximize recovery from the relatively low pressure and low temperature reservoirs in the Paleogene, the Perdido development will require a high well count, Snyder says. Shell plans to drill 35 or more wells from the Great White, Silvertip, and Tobago offshore fields, which will all tie back to the Perdido spar. While some wells will be drilled directly below or close to the spar, some will tie back from 30 miles away.

Tobago sits in more than 9,600 ft of water and surpasses the world depth record for a completed subsea well. "Later this year, we plan to drill a subsea well at Tobago at a water depth of almost 2 miles," said Snyder. "This will be the deepest manmade structure on the earth."

For startup, Shell drilled and completed 6 wells, 5 producers and 1 injection well. Over the next 6 weeks, production will ramp up on the 5 producers. When all 35 planned wells are drilled and completed, Shell estimates that Perdido's peak production will be more than 100,000 BOEPD.

"This projected daily production rate from Perdido helps underscore the importance of opening up more areas to E&P activities, and demonstrates that new production opportunities still exist that can help the US in terms of its trade balance and domestic energy security," said Odum.

The Perdido announcement came on the same day the Obama administration announced plans to open up vast expanses of American coastlines, including the Atlantic coast, the eastern GOM, and the north coast of Alaska, to oil and natural gas drilling. Odum expressed optimism in this announcement, and said that Shell's technologies and geological models can play an important role in guiding drilling activities as these areas open for exploration.

For more information on the Perdido project, visit Shell's Perdido web page.

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