[US GOM] Anchor

[escveritas]

chevron sanctions anchor project in the deepwater U.S. gulf of mexico

SAN RAMON, Calif. – Dec. 12, 2019 – Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) announced today it has sanctioned the Anchor project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. This marks the industry’s first deepwater high-pressure development to achieve a final investment decision. Delivery of the new technology, which is capable of handling pressures of 20,000 psi, also enables access to other high-pressure resource opportunities across the Gulf of Mexico for Chevron and the industry.

“This decision reinforces Chevron’s commitment to the deepwater asset class,” said Jay Johnson, executive vice president, Upstream, Chevron Corporation. “We expect to continue creating value for shareholders by delivering stand-alone development projects and sub-sea tie backs at a competitive cost.”

“For new projects in the Gulf of Mexico, we have reduced development costs by nearly a third, compared to our last generation of greenfield deepwater investments,” said Steve Green, president of Chevron North America Exploration and Production. “We’re doing this by standardizing equipment, utilizing fit-for-purpose surface facilities that require less capital and employing drill to fill strategies. At Anchor, we streamlined our front-end engineering and design phase and are utilizing more industry standards in our designs and equipment to lower costs while maintaining Operational Excellence.”

The Anchor Field is located in the Green Canyon area, approximately 140 miles (225 km) off the coast of Louisiana, in water depths of approximately 5,000 feet (1,524 m). The initial development of the project will require an investment of approximately $5.7 billion. Stage 1 of the Anchor development consists of a seven-well subsea development and semi-submersible floating production unit. First oil is anticipated in 2024.

The planned facility has a design capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil and 28 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. The total potentially recoverable oil-equivalent resources for Anchor are estimated to exceed 440 million barrels. Chevron, through its subsidiary Chevron U.S.A. Inc., is operator and holds a 62.86 percent working interest in the Anchor project. Co-owner TOTAL E&P USA, Inc. holds 37.14 percent working interest.

[escveritas]

Anchor is the industry’s first deepwater ultra-high pressure development to achieve a final investment decision and one of the largest projects in the US energy industry. The discovery, in Block 807 of the Green Canyon Protraction Area, is located approximately 225km off the coast of Louisiana, US in more than 1,500m of water.

With over 30 years’ experience designing deepwater developments, Wood is delivering a unique, fully integrated engineering design for the project topsides and subsea systems incorporating risers, production flowlines, export pipelines and flow assurance analysis.

With an operating pressure of 20,000 psi, Anchor is one of the industry’s first ultra-high pressure projects. The semi-submersible floating production unit employed on the development has a design capacity of 75,000 barrels of crude oil and 28 million cubic feet of natural gas per day, with the potential for future expansion.

As a strategic contractor for project delivery with a 20+ year relationship with the client, Wood was challenged by Chevron to create an economically viable facility design which can be leveraged for future similar discoveries. By revolutionising how we deliver an engineering scope of this scale, our people were able to execute the project via a digital cloud-based delivery model, using data to drive design.

The project has 200+ Wood team members working remotely alongside Chevron. During the Covid-19 pandemic, our teams transitioned to working from home in only one month after the start of the detailed design phase without any scheduling issues.

The technology and processes developed for this milestone project by Chevron, Wood and other strategic contractors will pave the way for future ultra-high pressure, high temperature discoveries globally.

[escveritas]

11 July 2023

offshore platform finds new home following 375-mile journey



When Isaias Rodriguez watched Chevron’s offshore platform, called Anchor, sail away from Ingleside, Texas, it felt like he was saying goodbye to an old friend.

As Anchor’s topsides fabrication and integration manager, he spent years helping the project grow from a concept to a 25-story high, oil and natural gas producing giant.

“Watching it depart the shoreline was emotional and exciting at the same time because this project has been the shining star so far in my career,” Rodriguez said.

sail away with me

As a crowd of Anchor project team members watched, the platform began its approximately 375-mile journey to its permanent location, about 140 miles away from the Louisiana coast.



It arrived in early June and is now tethered in place by 12 mooring lines in approximately 5,000 feet of water.

Production is set to begin next year to help meet growing energy demand. When it does, Anchor is expected to produce for the next 30 years at a peak of up to 75,000 barrels of oil per day in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which has some of the lowest carbon intensity producing assets in the world.

last stop

Jacob Gros, an Anchor offshore installation manager, was tasked with ensuring the platform reached its destination safely. Now that it has, he’ll help manage it throughout its expected 30-year lifecycle.

“We’ve done a lot of great planning,” he said. “Now it’s time to execute those plans. There’s no doubt in my mind that as we do that, we’ll continue to work incident-free and deliver the end goal, which is being a reliable long-term asset for Chevron and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.”