Despite Current Economic Climate, Production in GOM is Projected to Rise

For example, Chevron Corp., BP plc and ConocoPhillips Co. recently announced a partnership to explore and appraise 24 jointly-held leases in the oil-rich Keathley Canyon in the United States’ Exclusive Economic Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. It has been reported that the region could produce 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day over a 3-year period of time.

“The resources that have been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico haven’t moved or gone anywhere. It’s just been a matter of economics and the cost to develop them,” Staub explained.

Assessing The Assets

“We have always said on record that the Gulf of Mexico remains a viable area for oil and gas,” said John Filostrat, the Gulf of Mexico spokesperson for the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), to Rigzone. “We have long called it the Crown Jewel of our area, and we remain optimistic about what is out there in terms of oil and gas resources.”

BOEM’s most recent 2011 assessment estimates a mean of undiscovered technically recoverable resources in the Gulf of Mexico OCS to be 48.4 billion barrels of oil and 219.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for a total of 87.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

“The geology of the basin along with the complexity and abundance of salt structures provides the setting that makes the Gulf of Mexico one of the richest oil and natural gas regions in the world,” according to BOEM’s assessment. “The greatest undiscovered resource potential is forecast to be in the deep and ultra-deep water areas of the Gulf.”

There, water depths can be more than 11,000 feet deep.

Having begun drilling in 2014 at the 7,000 feet depth mark, Chevron is adding to increased production rates from its $7.5 billion platform in the Jack/St. Malo fields. It has been reported that the platform has the capacity to produce 170,000 barrels of crude and 42.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day over the next 30 years.


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