[US GOM] Mars / Olympus
Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2022 2:14 pm
Shell’s Mars B development is the first deep-water project in the US Gulf of Mexico to expand an existing offshore oil and gas field with significant new infrastructure, which should extend the life of the greater Mars basin to 2050 or beyond.
First oil production begun in February 2014 from the Mars B development through Olympus, Shell’s seventh, and largest, floating deep-water platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Combined production from Olympus and Shell’s original Mars platform is expected to deliver an estimated resource base of 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
The project is also directly investing $5 million dollars in community, social and environmental initiatives with the aim to benefit the communities of the US Gulf Coast, as well as in South Korea, where the hull of the Olympus platform was built.
Shell’s Mars B development is the first deep-water project in the US Gulf of Mexico to expand an existing offshore oil and gas field with significant new infrastructure, which should extend the life of the greater Mars basin to 2050 or beyond.
First oil production begun in January 2014 from the Mars B development through Olympus, Shell’s seventh, and largest, floating deep-water platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Combined production from Olympus and Shell’s original Mars platform is expected to deliver an estimated resource base of 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent (boe). Olympus is a tension leg platform (TLP) featuring 24 well slots, a self-containing drilling rig, and capability for subsea tie-backs.
In addition to the Olympus drilling and production platform, the Shell Mars B development includes subsea wells at the West Boreas and South Deimos fields, export pipelines, and a shallow-water platform, located at West Delta 143, near the Louisiana coast.
Olympus sits in approximately 3,100 feet of water (945 metres). Using the Olympus platform drilling rig and an additional floating drill rig, development drilling will enable ramp up to an estimated peak of 100,000 boe per day in 2016. The Mars field produced an average of over 60,000 boe per day in 2013.
The Mars field was discovered by Shell in 1989 and has contributed significantly to US energy supply. A combination of factors produced the growth enabled by Mars B, including improved understanding of the reservoir and recovery potential by using advanced seismic and modeling technologies, as well as new discoveries in the Mars field.
Location: Gulf of Mexico; 130 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the Mississippi Canyon area
Depth: Water depth ~3,100 feet
Interests: Shell (71.5% & operator) and BP (28.5%)
Fields: Mars, West Boreas, South Deimos
Production: Combined development has potential to deliver production rates in the order of ~100k boe/d.