The Jack/St. Malo development is a bellwether for the Lower Tertiary Trend, Stephen Thurston, vice president of deepwater exploration and projects for Chevron said at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) this week. The Jack and St. Malo fields, among the largest in the Gulf of Mexico, were discovered in 2004 and 2003, respectively.
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Jack/St. Malo. Image from Chevron. |
“The Jack/St. Malo wells are producing about 75,000 b/d from only five wells, for now,” Thurston said. “This jointly staged development strategy reduces costs, reduces risk, and captures synergies.”
The two development areas, separated by about 25mi, are joined in the middle with a floating production unit (FPU) that will also be connected via tiebacks to the Julia field now under development by ExxonMobil, said Thurston.
In stage 1, Chevron brought the Jack/St. Malo semisubmersible, built by Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea and Kiewit in Texas, into action. The facility set the world record for the largest deep draft semisubmersible and it is working in 7000ft water depth with tiebacks reaching about 15mi. The facility includes the world’s largest booster pumps and holds the record for frac-perforation length. The Jack/St. Malo, with 170,000 b/d capacity, received first oil in December 2014.
The US$7 billion project includes single-trip, multi-zone, frac-pack technology, which allows higher production rates and has resulted in 38-day savings per well to completion, said Thurston. The development also includes single-phase pumps with OneSubsea technology that will exceed current industry depth and power operations. Overall, the project that began 10 years ago has been managed on-time and under-budget, Thurston said. Chevron expects to bring six of its 10 stage 1 wells online in 2015, and expects to produce at least 115,000 b/d through 2018.
“Right now, we have 100% natural flow from these wells,” Thurston said. “We will allow the pressure to come down before we turn the pumps on. We have 1400ft of frac packs, but the vertical conductivity in the Lower Tertiary Trend is still unknown.”
Thurston called for the industry’s research, development and service sectors to progress the capabilities of isolation and zonal flow surveillance. “Isolation and flow surveillance in individual zones would be very important here and the industry is working on that,” he said.
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