LNG

Kosmos Energy, the Dallas-based company with LNG interests in the West African nations of Senegal and Mauritania and a specialist company for offshore Atlantic Margins exploration and production, has made a successful start-up of oil production at the Winterfell development in the Green Canyon area of the US Gulf of Mexico.

TechnipFMC, the US oil and gas services company, reported increased profit and revenues as well as a rising backlog of contracts covering areas such as South America, the Gulf of Mexico and Europe.

Kosmos Energy, a shareholder in the floating liquefied natural gas projects offshore Senegal and Mauritania in West Africa and other regional oil and gas ventures in Ghana and Equatorial Guinea, swung to a fourth-quarter profit from a previous loss and reported good progress on the FLNG development alongside UK major BP and advances in the additional Yakaar-Teranga LNG proposal.

Woodside Energy, the Western Australian LNG plant operator with global oil and gas interests, expects to recognise non-cash, post-tax asset impairments amounting to around US$1.50 billion with US$1.20Bln related to the Shenzi asset, the deepwater oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, and the remainder for Wheatstone LNG.

Woodside Energy, the Australian LNG plants operator with overseas assets in the US and Senegal, and UK major Shell are moving forward with separate oil and gas project, the Trion joint venture for Woodside and Shell’s Sparta deep-water development located in the Mexican and US portions of the Gulf of Mexico.

Woodside said it awarded a major contract to Mexican company Eseasa Offshore SA to supply shore base facilities and services for Woodside’s operations supporting the Trion oil and gas project offshore Mexico.

Woodside operates the Gulf of Mexico field, located in a water depth of 8,202 feet (2,500 metres), with a 60 percent stake while state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) holds the remaining 40 percent of the field discovered in 2012.

Support role

“The Mexican owned and operated company demonstrates the great capacity available in-country to support a world-class oil and gas project like Trion,” said Woodside Vice President for Trion Stephane Drouaud.

“It also reinforces Woodside’s commitment to investing locally and ensuring that the economic benefits of our investment in Trion are felt as broadly as possible across Mexican suppliers,” Drouaud stated.

“Eseasa will provide a broad range of services out of its shore base location on the Panuco River coastline The award of the contract is critical as we continue to progress the Trion project toward first oil in 2028,” he added.

Eseasa’s scope of includes shore base infrastructure, operations planning and management for vessel mooring, loading and discharge and freight and material management and dedicated laydown and staging areas.

Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of London-headquartered Shell plc, said a final investment decision has been made the for Sparta field, a deep-water development in the US Gulf of Mexico that represents a “competitive approach” for Shell to simplifying and replicating projects.

Shell and Equinor

Shell Offshore owns 51 percent of Sparta and is the operator and Norway’s Equinor owns the remaining 49 percent.

Sparta is expected to reach a peak production of around 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and currently has an estimated discovered recoverable resource volume of 244 million boe.

Sparta will be Shell’s 15th deep-water host in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently scheduled to begin production in 2028.

“Shell’s latest deep-water development demonstrates the power of replication, driving greater value from our advantaged positions,” said Zoë Yujnovich, Shell’s Integrated Gas and Upstream Director.

“This investment decision is aligned with our commitment to pursue the most energy-efficient and competitive projects while supplying safe, secure energy supplies today and for decades to come,” she added.

Shell explained that Sparta was building on more than 40 years of deep-water expertise and marks Shell’s first development in the Gulf of Mexico to produce from reservoirs with pressures up to 20,000 pounds per square inch.

The Sparta development spans four Outer Continental Shelf blocks in the Garden Banks area of the US Gulf.

“Sparta will feature a semi-submersible production host in a depth of more than 1,400m/4,700ft of water, initially with eight oil and gas producing wells,” Shell said.

Inpex Corp. of Japan, operator of the Ichthys plant in Northern Australia and a shareholder in the offshore Prelude FLNG plant with Royal Dutch Shell, reported losses for 2020 and took hits on Prelude and Eagle Ford assets in the US, while forecasting a recovery in the Japanese and global oil and gas markets for the rest of 2021.