Chevron has announced the commencement of water injection operations at two projects aimed at enhancing oil and natural gas recovery at its existing Jack/St. Malo and Tahiti facilities in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.
Chevron’s operations in this region are noted for producing some of the world’s lowest carbon intensity oil and gas.
Chevron Americas Exploration & Production president Bruce Niemeyer said: “Delivery of these two projects maximises returns from our existing resource base and contributes toward growing our production to 300,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day in the US Gulf of Mexico by 2026.
“These achievements follow the recent production startup at our high-pressure Anchor field, reinforcing Chevron’s position as a leader in technological delivery and project execution in the Gulf.”
At the Jack/St. Malo facility, Chevron has successfully initiated water injection at the St. Malo field, marking the company’s first waterflood project within the deepwater Wilcox trend.
This project was completed under budget and involved the installation of water injection facilities, along with the drilling of two new production wells and two new injection wells. The water injection is projected to increase the St. Malo field’s gross ultimate recovery by approximately 175 million barrels of oil equivalent.
The St. Malo field and Jack/St. Malo facility are situated approximately 280 miles (450km) south of New Orleans, Louisiana, in around 7,000ft (2,134m) of water. Since production commenced in 2014, Jack and St. Malo have collectively produced nearly 400 million gross barrels of oil equivalent.
At the Tahiti facility, located approximately 190 miles (306km) south of New Orleans in about 4,100ft (1,250m) of water, Chevron has begun injecting water into its first deepwater Gulf producer-to-injector conversion wells. This project involved the installation of a new water injection manifold and 20,000ft of flexible water injection flowline.
Supported by several development projects since operations began in 2009, the Tahiti facility recently exceeded 500 million gross barrels of oil-equivalent cumulative production. Chevron continues to explore advanced drilling, completion, and production technologies that could be utilised in future development phases at Tahiti and Jack/St. Malo, with the potential to further enhance recovery from these fields.
Chevron, through its subsidiary Union Oil Company of California, operates the St. Malo field and, together with its subsidiary Chevron USA, holds a 51% working interest. The co-owners include MP Gulf of Mexico, with a 25% interest; Equinor Gulf of Mexico with 21.5%; Exxon Mobil with 1.25%; and Eni Petroleum US with 1.25%.
Chevron USA operates the Tahiti facility with a 58% working interest. The co-owners are Equinor Gulf of Mexico holding a 25% stake, and TotalEnergies E&P USA with a 17% stake.
