In April, Transocean’s Deepwater Asgard drillship arrived in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to work under a two-year contract for Chevron. The ship is a Daewoo Shipbuilding DSME 12000 design with dynamic positioning capabilities and can drill up to 35,000ft deep and operate in moderate environments in water depths up to 10,000ft.
According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement data, the ship is working on the Blind Faith play in MC 696. Blind Faith is in 7000ft of water at Mississippi Canyon blocks 695 and 696 and is operated by Chevron (62.5% working interest) on behalf of Kerr-McGee (37.5% working interest).
The field was discovered in June 2001 by Chevron drilling in the Miocene sands using Diamond Offshore's Ocean Confidence. The well encountered more than 200ft of net pay between 20,900ft and 24,300ft. Total reserves are estimated to be 100 MMboe.
The Blind Faith development is based on a subsea system tied back to a semisubmersible host facility in Mississippi Canyon block 650 by means of two insulated flowlines. A semisubmersible floating facility designed by Aker Kværner is used for production. The development was the first to use Aker Kværner's four-column ring pontoon deep draft semisubmersible concept, which was first conceived for the application of steel catenary risers in the ultra-deepwater and current-heavy GOM. environment.
Fun fact: During 2014, net daily production in the GOM averaged 133,000 bbl of crude, 320 MMcf of gas and 15,000 bbl of natural gas liquids.