Exploratory activities in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico have led to significant successes, and production in water depth greater than 1000 feet is now within sight of 500,000 BOEPD and growing rapidly. Although once considered a mature basin, production growth in the Gulf of Mexico is fueled by two and three generations of field revitalization, exploratory success, the commissioning of new deep water production facilities, and a way of doing business that requires creativity, teamwork, technology and prudent risk taking.

With a strong focus on fast-tracking the development of exploratory successes to improve deep water economic returns, our integrated development teams are using concepts very familiar to explorationists. These techniques include how we manage risk, how we utilize technology, how we increase efficiency, how we utilize people, and how we make value-chain decisions.

Deep water development costs can easily exceed $500MM - $1.0BB per prospect. To maximize the value of such a large investment, it is no longer sufficient to sequentially acquire leases, drill wells, appraise discoveries, conduct engineering studies, build a facility, and then produce a deep water project. Our integrated project teams, which include geoscientists, engineers, vendors, partners, and key stakeholders have collapsed the cycle time to first production by taking a portfolio approach to development opportunities, and by running traditional processes concurrently rather than sequentially. They have pursued “plug and play” development concepts to reduce cost and cycle time much like our explorationists group prospects together by “play” to follow a successful trend. Innovative development concepts are now considered long before an exploratory discovery is made.

Texaco's-portfolio of deep water exploratory successes is growing, with active projects in all phase of exploration, appraisal, development, and production. Through the sharing of examples along the deep water value chain, integrated project development teams are seen to use many techniques that look f ilia to explorationists and are fundamental to the continued economic success of our exploratory programs.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90937©1998 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, Salt Lake City, Utah