|
 DEEPWATER/ULTRA-DEEPWATER
Drilling for oil
and gas in the outer continental shelf of the Gulf
of Mexico (GOM) has come a long way in the 60 years
since the early shallow wells were drilled from
fixed structures within sight of land to the very
deep wells in very deep water cited in the press
release above. The Outer Continental Shelf extends
from the state waters (three to nine miles depending
on the state) out up to 200 nautical miles as
defined by international law. But the move to deeper
water has not been linear in progression, the
players have changed, and enormous technological
advances have been made. The first offshore well was
drilled in the 1940s and as recently as 1996 the
deepest production was in 2,243 feet of water.
Beginning in 2003 interest begin growing in the
Lower Tertiary trend, which begins 175 miles
offshore and is approximately 80 miles wide and 300
miles long, in water depths over 10,000 feet. The
challenges of developing this trend, both technical
and economic, are daunting but the prize, according
to the MMS, could be as large as 50 billion barrels
from the deep and ultra-deep areas of the GOM.
Let
PTTC
know if there is additional information that needs
to be part of this Tech Center
|
White Paper – Issues,
Current Work and Future Direction
