The Next Major Challenge for Deep Water: Developing Marginal Fields

Abstract

Abstract Worldwide, there are hundreds of deep water oil fields that have been discovered, and many hundreds yet to be discovered that are not commercial using existing conventional deep water approaches. A new paradigm based on production materiality is an alternate approach for deep water marginal oil field exploration and development. This new paradigm shows that first oil could be consistently achieved in one to two years from discovery to first oil with attractive economics if there are new ways to significantly reduce drilling costs, capital investment, and operational costs. This paper presents a paradigm of how these results might be possible in the foreseeable future with the innovation of what might be called the micro chip for deep water—the self standing riser. INTRODUCTION History of the oil industry shows the early discoveries of oil and gas started with the shallow, easiest to find hydrocarbons, onshore. With innovations in seismic and drilling equipment and technology deeper discoveries were made. Later exploration was extended offshore to the shallow shelf areas. The North Sea and Gulf of Mexico (GOM) and offshore Brazil led the development of offshore technology which focused on drilling with jack-ups, drill ships, and semi submersibles with most of the production facilities based on compliant platform structures. However, as smaller fields were discovered and field extensions extended beyond the reach of the drilling/production platforms the subsea well became a viable option. Subsea wells near the platform were tied back via pipeline to the platform. However, in some cases, a floating production unit (FPU) was used to process the subsea well(s) production and tie back to the main production line. Other cases where the tie-back to the main pipeline was not feasible a floating production storage off-take vessel (FPSO) was used not only to process the reservoir fluids but also to store the oil for later pick up by an oil tanker. For most of the world (except for the Gulf of Mexico), especially the North Sea, Brazil and Australasia, the subsea well and FPU/FPSO became the normal development path for the smaller offshore fields. The FPU/FPSO offered more versatility, quicker construction, and in most cases better economics. The Gulf of Mexico was a unique case where there has always been enough offshore pipeline infra-structure where all the oil and gas production went into the main pipelines. Because of the pipeline network and some other perceived safety and environmental issues the use of FPSOs was non-existent. Only a few FPUs were commissioned in the GOM. In the middle of the '80s the exploration community, with the help of advanced seismic technology, showed the likelihood of finding large oil fields in deeper water with Brazil leading the way. Deeper water discoveries in the GOM and West Africa followed. Except for the Middle East few places held the potential for the discoveries of big fields like deep water.