The Who Dat Development: Evolution of a Project from Lease Sale to First Production

摘要

This paper provides an overview of the Who Dat development. The Who Dat field is located in the Mississippi Canyon protraction area of the Gulf of Mexico in blocks 503, 504 and 547 and is being developed using the OPTI-EX semisubmersible floating production system (FPS) which has a capacity of 60 MBOPD and 150 MMCFD. The Who Dat discovery is primarily oil and consists of ten stacked amplitude-supported reservoirs in a salt withdrawal mini-basin. Three wells have been drilled to date penetrating over 700' of net pay in nine distinct reservoirs ranging in depth from 12,000' to 17,000' TVD. The field will be developed with twelve subsea wells (i.e. wet trees) flowing to three subsea manifolds and subsequently to the FPS via two infield flowloops using flexible risers. The project includes a 10" gas export line and 14" oil export line also using flexible risers. The paper covers the exploration phase including evaluating the prospect prior to the lease sale and adjusting the delineation plan based on the discovery well. The paper also covers the development concept selection including the evolution of the project from a long subsea tieback to a new FPS, the challenges of utilizing an FPS that was built on a speculative basis (modifications required, regulatory approval), and contracting strategy (negotiation of an installment purchase and managing uncertainty in a post-Macondo environment). This development represents a number of firsts: first time that a private company will own an FPS, first time the OPTI-EX semisubmersible FPS will be used, first time an FPS has been approved for installation post-Macondo, first time an FPS has been built on speculation, and first time a field has gone from concept selection to installation of a new FPS in less than a year. The project's accelerated schedule created challenges since numerous items were on critical path, including items that are typically nowhere near critical path.