Page 13 - NorthAmOil Week 12

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil
Aker agrees to provide umbilicals for Chevron’s Gulf operations
GULF OF MEXICO
AKER Solutions announced this week that it had entered into a master agreement to pro- vide umbilicals for Chevron’s operations in the US Gulf of Mexico over a 20-year period. The company also said it had secured its first work order under the new agreement, which will see it provide 15 miles (24km) of 20,000 psi dynamic steel tube and power umbilicals and distribution equipment to Chevron’s Anchor project.
Aker’s facility in Mobile, Alabama will carry out the engineering, design and manufacturing of the umbilicals the company will supply. Aker said the work would begin immediately, with the contract booked as order intake in the first quarter of 2020.
The deepwater Anchor field is located in the Green Canyon area, around 140 miles (225km) offshore Louisiana in water depths of 5,000 feet (1,524 metres). Chevron sanctioned the project in December 2019, with the move hailed as the first final investment decision (FID) to be taken on a deepwater high-pres- sure development.
The initial phase of the project will require an investment of around $5.7bn, compris- ing a seven-well subsea development and a
semi-submersible floating production unit. The facility is designed to have a capacity of 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude and 28mn cubic feet (792,960mn cubic metres) per day of natural gas. The total potentially recoverable reserves at Anchor are estimated to exceed 440mn barrels of oil equivalent (boe).
Chevron operates Anchor with a 62.86% working interest. France’s Total holds the remaining 37.14% stake in the project. First oil from the project is anticipated in 2024.
The FID on the project has come during a period when new deepwater developments have become comparatively rare as offshore produc- ers have targeted infrastructure-led development in a bid to maximise production from existing facilities and reduce costs.
When it announced the FID, Chevron said it had reduced its development costs by nearly a third compared with its previous generation of greenfield deepwater investments. “We’re doing this by standardising equipment, utilising fit-for- purpose surface facilities that require less capital and employing drill-to-fill strategies,” Chevron’s president of North American exploration and production, Steve Green, said at the time.™
ExxonMobil reportedly cutting production at Gulf Coast refineries
US GULF COAST
EXXONMOBIL has reportedly cut produc- tion at two of its refineries on the US Gulf Coast owing to weak demand. The moves come as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic continues to hit demand for refined products, resulting in storage facilities filling up.
On March 22, Reuters reported that Exxon- Mobil had reduced production the previous day at its 502,500 barrel per day refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Citing sources familiar with plant operations, the news service said output had been cut to about 440,000 bpd.
This comes after the Baton Rouge refinery – the second-largest in Louisiana and also Exxon- Mobil’s second-largest in the US – had restored full production on March 9 after being shut in following a fire on February 12.
An ExxonMobil spokesman, Jeremy Eiken- berry, told Reuters that the spending cuts would be announced when final decisions were made.
“We are notifying contractors and vendors
of our intended reductions, and they may be adjusting their staffing and budgets accordingly,” Eikenberry was quoted as saying.
A day later, on March 23, Bloomberg reported that processing rates at ExxonMobil’s 369,000 bpd Beaumont refinery in Texas had been reduced by around 20% owing to weak demand for petroleum products. According to the news service, rates are predicted to remain reduced until demand improves.
This reduction comes ahead of a turnaround on the refinery’s 285,000 bpd crude distillation unit (CDU) – its largest – which remains on schedule to begin in early April and which will bring about a further cut in rates.
Separately on March 23, it was reported that ExxonMobil would increase the turnaround time on the CDU from 40 days to 80 days in anticipation of demand remaining depressed.
Employee numbers on site at Beaumont are also reported to have been reduced to only those whose jobs are considered essential.™
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