Perdido located in the US Gulf of Mexico is one of the deepest oil and gas developments in the world. Operated by Shell, the deep-water project has been operational since March 2010.
The Perdido offshore development comprises a spar platform moored in 2,450m-deep waters that serves as a production hub for three deep-water fields namely Great White, Silvertip, and Tobago.
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The Perdido production platform has the capacity to process about 100,000 barrels of crude oil and 200 million cubic feet of gas per day.
Shell announced the Blacktip deep-water discovery in the Perdido area in April 2019 and awarded the key contract for the Perdido phase two development in September 2019.
Location and reservoir details
Perdido oil and gas development is located approximately 320km south of Freeport, Texas, in the south-western part of the US Gulf of Mexico.
The Perdido production and drilling platform is located on Alaminos Canyon block 857 while the Great White, Silvertip, and the Tobago fields are located within 48km radius on Alaminos Canyon blocks 857, 859 and 815, respectively.
The reservoirs of these deep-water fields comprise the Lower Tertiary (Paleogene) sandstone formations. The water depths in the Perdido area range from 2,300m to 2,800m.
Perdido deep-water development partners
The Perdido host platform is owned by operator Shell (35%), Chevron (37.5%), and BP (27.5%).
The Great White is owned by operator Shell (33.34%), BP (33.33%) and Chevron (33.33%), while the Sivertip field also operated by Shell is owned by Chevron (60%) and Shell (40%).
The Tobago field that was brought on stream in 2011 is owned by operator Shell (32.5%), Nexen (10%), Chevron (30%), and Unocal (27.5%).
Perdido production and drilling platform
The Perdido host platform comprises a 170m-long and 26m-diametre cylindrical spar hull that weighs approximately 22,000t. The giant spar hull is moored with nine taut-leg mooring systems and is designed to withstand the most powerful storms.
The mooring components include suction pile anchors, plie chain, mooring connector, ground chain, polyester rope sections as well as platform chain.
The Perdido spar hull was constructed in Pori, Finland, and shipped to the Gulf of Mexico through Baltic Sea covering a distance of 13,200km in 2008.
The platform has three topsides for housing the oil and gas processing units, living quarters for approximately 170 people, and a drilling rig.
The hull and moorings installation were completed in 2008 while the topsides installation was performed in 2009.
A total of 35 subsea wells, including 22 direct vertical access wells and 13 remote wells were planned to be drilled from the Perdido spar platform.
Perdido phase two development
TechnipFMC was awarded an integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) contract for the Perdido phase 2 development, a subsea tieback to the existing Perdido host platform, in October 2019.
The scope of the contract includes the delivery and installation of subsea equipment, flexible flowlines, flexible jumpers, steel flying leads, and electrical flying leads.
TechnipFMC will also use its advanced Subsea 2.0 In-Line Compact Manifold design for the project.
Contractors involved
Technip was awarded the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for spar hull and mooring system for the Perdido spar platform in 2006.
The spar hull was built by Technip Offshore in Pori, Finland, while the topsides were designed by Alliance Engineering and constructed by Kiewit Offshore.
Heerema Marine Contractors was contracted for the transportation and installation of the spar hull as well as the topsides.
FMC Technologies was contracted to supply subsea systems for the Perdido deep-water project in May 2007.
McDermott International was awarded contracts for the installation of flexible flowlines and umbilicals for the Silvertip and the Great White fields in 2018.
