In their continued search for new oil fields developers are looking to deeper and deeper waters. As Sean Davies discovers, Shell's new Perdido platform is pushing the engineering boundaries further than ever before. AS THE traditional oil wells begin to run dry, oil companies are looking to ever more inhospitable locations to extract oil, and there can't be many locations more challenging than 8,000ft (2,438m) under the sea. That is the challenge facing Shell engineers at the Perdido oilfield in the Gulf of Mexico Located about 200 miles from Houston in an isolated sector of the western Gulf of Mexico, Perdido will be the world's deepest oil and gas drilling and production facility when it comes online in early 2010. The facility is capable of handling 100,000 barrels of oil and 200,000 cubic feet of gas per day.
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