VAN DEN BERG, ALEX N., and WILLIAM K. DIRKS, Shell Offshore Inc., New Orleans, LA
ABSTRACT: Business and Technical Overview of the Gulf of Mexico Deep-Water Play
A steadily growing volume of publicly available data (well logs, speculative seismic surveys, press releases, etc.) strongly suggests that the deep-water part of the Gulf of Mexico contains large reserves of recoverable hydrocarbons. Well logs available through the Minerals management Service Order 4 Release Program indicate at least 25 potentially developable accumulations have been found, some 14 of which had been publicized at the time of this paper. We estimate that industry has spent more than $4 billion nominal to discover at least 1.5 billion bbl of oil equivalent, of which only a small fraction has been developed and produced.
Most volumetrically significant deep-water discoveries can be geographically grouped into six "corridors" in which industry collaboration in terms of shared infrastructure, operating principles, service company support, etc., seems inevitable. Given the tremendous technical challenges and uncertainties associated with the play, coupled with the high cost of building, installing, and operating deep-water production systems, industry cooperation similar to that found in some international arenas will be critical to achieving production in this promising new area of an established basin.
AAPG Search and
Discovery Article #90990©1993 AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, The
Hague, Netherlands, October 17-20, 1993.