LNG

Royal Dutch Shell has started production at its huge Appomattox platform in the deepwater zone of the US Gulf of Mexico a few months ahead of schedule with a Chinese major as its partner in one of the few Gulf ventures to start in the past few years in the face of investment competition from onshore for LNG and pipeline gas exports.

Appomattox is the only platform start-up in the Gulf in 2019 and is expected to produce 175,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day from its position about 80 miles southeast of the Louisiana coastline.

The project is the first large-scale production from Gulf's Norphlet formation.

Appomattox is a joint venture between Shell and China National Offshore Oil Corp. Inc., a subsidiary of Beijing-based CNOOC. Shell owns 79 percent and CNOOC has a 21 percent stake.

The Appomattox venture is named after the courthouse building in the state of Virginia where Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered in 1865 to end the American Civil War.

Shell had made the decision to authorize and build the project back in 2015 during the most recent energy slump and Appomattox had not originally been expected to start production until the fourth quarter of 2019.

“That Appomattox was safely brought online ahead of schedule and far under budget is a testament to our ongoing commitment to drive down costs through efficiency improvements during execution,” said Andy Brown, Shell's Upstream director.

“Appomattox creates a core long-term hub for Shell in the Norphlet through which we can tie back several already discovered fields as well as future discoveries,” Brown explained.

Shell announced in 2018 the Dover discovery near the Appomattox platform and means it can be developed through connections, called tie-backs, to the Appomattox platform.

The Mattox Pipeline is also part of the project and is 90 miles (145km) in length with 300,000 barrels per day capacity that will move the produced crude oil from Appomattox westward to the Proteus pipeline system and then onshore.

The Mattox pipeline is jointly owned by Shell GoM Pipeline Company and CNOOC Petroleum Sales USA Inc.

Royal Dutch Shell, the largest liquefied natural gas participant among international energy companies, has signed production sharing contracts for two exploration blocks offshore Mauritania, the West Africa nation pursuing floating LNG ventures with neighbour Senegal.