Perdido, moored in ~2,450 metres (8,000 feet) of water, is the world’s deepest direct vertical access spar. The spar acts as a hub for and enables development of three fields – Great White, Tobago, and Silvertip. It gathers, processes and exports production within a 48-kilometre (30-mile) radius. Tobago, in ~2,925 metres (9,596 feet) of water, will be the world’s deepest subsea completion. The Perdido platform peak production will be 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
Social and environmental responsibility is a central pillar of Shell’s operations. Shell’s Gulf of Mexico operations have a long association with the city of New Orleans, and this is reflected in the contribution the company made to many recovery programmes after Hurricane Katrina. The Shell Coming Home campaign and sponsorship of the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival – a key event in the city’s on-going recovery – helped build confidence in the city’s future. Shell is also involved in projects such as wetlands restoration on the Texas/ Louisiana coast.
The Perdido spar was constructed by Technip in Pori, Finland and began its 13,200-kilometre (8,202-mile) journey to Texas in May 2008, arriving in the Gulf of Mexico in August 2008. The 170-metre (555-foot) cylindrical spar was secured to the sea floor and Shell completed the installation of the drilling and production platform on top of it. Around 270 staff living on the platform and an adjacent floating hotel, or flotel, completed the commissioning and hook-up required to produce first oil.
There are 22 direct vertical access wells from the spar, with an additional 13 tiebacks from subsea completions. The Perdido hull is nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower and weighs the same as 10,000 large family cars.
The Noble Clyde Boudreaux platform drilled the production wells. We set a world record in December 2008 with the deepest completed offshore production well at about 2,852 metres (9,356 feet) below the water’s surface. Another well currently being drilled in the Tobago field will go deeper at around 2,925 metres (9,627 feet).
