OREANDA-NEWS. The Jack/St. Malo project in the US Gulf of Mexico is the first of five major Statoil US offshore fields that will begin production over the next few years.

The addition of production from Jack/St. Malo is an important building block of Statoil’s plan to have more than a four-fold increase in offshore production – to over 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day – from the US Gulf of Mexico by 2020. This would make Statoil one of the largest producers in the Gulf of Mexico.

“We are very pleased to see production begin of these high-value barrels at Jack/St. Malo,” said Statoil US offshore senior vice president Jason Nye. “This large, complex project was delivered on time and on budget—which is world-class execution.”

The Jack and St. Malo fields are located within 25 miles (40 km) of each other in approximately 7,000 feet (2,100 m) of water in the Walker Ridge area, approximately 280 miles (450 km) south of New Orleans, Louisiana.

The fields were co-developed with subsea completions flowing back to a single host, semi-submersible floating production unit located between the fields, with a production capacity of 170,000 barrels of oil and 42.5 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, and with the capability for future expansion.

Crude oil will be transported 137 miles to the Green Canyon 19 Platform via the Jack/St. Malo Oil Export Pipeline, and then onto refineries along the Gulf Coast. The pipeline is the first large-diameter, ultra-deepwater pipeline in the Walker Ridge area.

Total production from the two fields is expected to eventually ramp up to 94,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.  Statoil’s expected production from the combined fields is about 23,000 barrels of oil/day at peak production. 

What’s important to acknowledge is this field is Statoil’s entry into the emerging Paleogene Wilcox trend,” Nye adds. “This trend is characterised by large in-place volumes and lower recovery rates, and industry knowledge about production in this trend is in its very early days. However, we believe that we can add significant production volume in the years ahead through the application of technology and increased oil recovery expertise.”

The Paleogene trend is emerging as an area of increasing importance and value in the Gulf of Mexico, but it will require better equipment and technology to optimise recovery than the industry currently has available to address massive reservoir pressure in the ultra-deep waters.

The Jack and St. Malo fields were discovered in 2004 and 2003, respectively, and are estimated to contain combined total recoverable resources in excess of 500 million oil equivalent barrels.

The project was sanctioned in 2010 and has delivered a number of noteworthy accomplishments. These include:

  • Utilising the industry’s largest seafloor boost system
  • The largest capacity high-pressure deepwater subsea pumps
  • The largest semi-submersible host by displacement in the Gulf of Mexico 

Statoil technical experts were seconded to the Jack/St. Malo project team and contributed ideas and expertise from Statoil’s experience using subsea pumps on the Norwegian continental shelf.

Statoil has a working interest of 25% in the Jack field, with co-owners Chevron (50%) and Maersk Oil (25%).  Statoil also holds a 21.5% working interest in the St. Malo field, with co-owners Chevron (51%), Petrobras (25%), ExxonMobil (1.25%) and Eni (1.25%). It also holds a 27.9% ownership interest in the host facility, with co-owners Chevron (40.6%), Petrobras (15%), ExxonMobil (10.75%), Maersk (5%), and Eni (0.75%).

Along with Jack/St. Malo, Statoil has a very attractive deepwater development portfolio in the Gulf of Mexico with ownership in many of the largest fields coming on line over the next several years:  Big Foot (27% ownership), Julia (50% ownership), Stampede (25% ownership), and Vito (30% ownership)

When the Exxon Mobil-operated Julia project begins production in 2016, its production will be a tie-in to the Jack/St. Malo platform. Statoil’s oil production will be transported via the Jack/St. Malo Oil Export Pipeline.