Chevron Sanctions Ballymore Gulf Of Mexico Project

U.S. oil and gas supermajor Chevron has sanctioned the Ballymore project in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Chevron said that the project, with a design capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil per day, would be developed as a three-mile subsea tieback to the existing Chevron-operated Blind Faith platform.

“Chevron’s U.S. Gulf of Mexico production is some of the lowest carbon intensity production in our portfolio at around 6 kg CO2 equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent and is a fraction of the global industry average,” said Steve Green, president of Chevron North America Exploration and Production.

“Once complete, Ballymore is expected to add a reliable supply of U.S. produced energy to help meet global demand. The project is designed to lower development costs by using a subsea tieback approach, standardized equipment, and repeatable engineering solutions – leveraging existing operated infrastructure,” Green added.

Ballymore will be Chevron’s first development in the Norphlet trend of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. The project will be in the Mississippi Canyon area in around 6,600 feet of water, about 160 miles southeast of New Orleans.

According to the supermajor, potentially recoverable oil-equivalent resources for Ballymore are estimated at more than 150 million barrels.

The project, which involves three production wells tied back via one flowline to the nearby Blind Faith facility, will require an investment of approximately $1.6 billion. Oil and natural gas production will be transported via existing infrastructure. First oil is expected in 2025.

Chevron subsidiary Chevron U.S.A. Inc. is the operator of the Ballymore project with a 60 percent working interest. Co-owner TotalEnergies has a 40 percent interest.

“Sanctioning the Ballymore field development, only four years after the discovery, is the result of our exploration efforts in the Gulf of Mexico,” said David Mendelson, Senior Vice President Americas of TotalEnergies Exploration & Production. “Thanks to its tie-back development concept, this decision fits TotalEnergies’ strategy of focusing on oil projects with low breakeven and low emissions.”

It is worth reminding that Chevron made, what it at the time called, ‘a significant oil discovery’ at the Ballymore prospect back in January 2018. In April 2021, the company awarded an engineering and procurement services contract to Worley to provide brownfield modification services for the Blind Faith platform.

The Blind Faith platform weighs over 40,000 tons, is nearly 30 stories high, and began production in 2008. At the time of its construction was Chevron's deepest water development anywhere in the world

In April, Chevron posted its highest quarterly profits in 10 years of $6.5 billion due to higher commodity prices, with the company’s U.S. production increasing by 10 percent from the same period last year.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com