Chevron's Key Discoveries and Developments in the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico, a Story of Steady Growth

Abstract

While Chevron was a “late entrant” into the Deepwater Gulf of Mexico with participation in our first deepwater lease sale in 1995, we were an “early entrant” into the deepwater subsalt trends. Since 1995, Chevron has been a major participant in every deepwater lease sale, and that 20-year commitment to the deepwater has delivered a portfolio of conventional deepwater fields, but more importantly a significant portfolio of subsalt Miocene, and subsalt Lower Tertiary, prospects, discoveries, and producing fields. When you look back, more than two-thirds of the resources discovered to date in the deepwater Gulf have come from “subsalt” fields, and most of the future discoveries will also be “subsalt.”

Chevron currently produces oil and gas from ten deepwater fields, and we operate six of them including Blind Faith, Tahiti, and Jack / St. Malo. Chevron also has eight discovered fields in deepwater, in various stages of appraisal and pre-development, such as Big Foot, Buckskin, Moccasin, Anchor, and Guadalupe, as well as a portfolio of over 30 high-quality deepwater exploratory prospects.

The above mentioned developments boosted Chevron's share of deepwater production to nearly 150,000 barrels of oil per day by 2010, and with our current portfolio of deepwater developments, Chevron will continue to grow its deepwater production profile significantly throughout this decade.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is a “world class” petroleum basin with significant remaining oil and gas resource potential, but with many technical challenges. This presentation will describe why the deepwater Gulf is so attractive, where Chevron is active, and the technologies we are deploying to enable development of such a significant petroleum system. The recent Jack / St. Malo development will be highlighted as an example of overcoming the challenges and delivering a world class project in the subsalt Lower Tertiary trend.

AAPG Datapages/Search and Discovery Article #90219 © 2015 GCAGS, Houston, Texas, September 20-22, 2015