Woodside's Shenzi North project starts production
Woodside-operated Shenzi North project has commenced production in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico, ahead of its planned start date in 2024, the company announced on September 13.
Shenzi was discovered in 2002 and the first production of oil and natural gas occurred in 2009. The Shenzi platform produces both oil and gas with a production capacity of 100,000 barrels/day and 50mn ft3/day. Crude oil and natural gas produced from the field is transported to connecting pipelines for onward sale to Gulf Coast customers.
The project is a two-well subsea tieback that takes advantage of the existing Shenzi infrastructure to increase production capacity of the asset. The final investment decision (FID) was taken in July 2021.
“First production from Shenzi North shows how we are leveraging existing infrastructure to increase production and provide attractive returns from our Gulf of Mexico business," Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said. “Taking the project from FID to first oil in 26 months is a great achievement. I commend the project team on safely bringing this resource into production well ahead of schedule."
Woodside holds a 72% interest in the Shenzi conventional oil and gas field as operator and Repsol holds the remaining 28% interest. The field is located approximately 195 km off the coast of Louisiana in the Green Canyon protraction area.