Shell Offshore Inc, a subsidiary of Shell plc, has announced that production has commenced at the Shell-operated Vito floating production facility in the US Gulf of Mexico.
Vito is the company’s first deepwater platform in the Gulf of Mexico to use a simplified and cost-effective host design, Shell said in a statement posted on its website. The company highlighted in the statement that, in 2015, the design of the original Vito development host was retrofitted and simplified, which Shell said resulted in an approximately 80 percent reduction in CO2.2 emissions over the lifetime of the facility, as well as a cost reduction of more than 70 percent compared to the original host concept.
Vito has an estimated peak production of 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, according to Shell, which noted that the current estimated volume of recoverable resources from the Vito development is 290 million barrels of oil equivalent.
“Vito is an excellent example of how we are approaching our projects to meet the energy demands of today and tomorrow, while remaining resilient as we work towards net zero emissions by 2050,” said Zoe Yujnovich, Upstream director of Shell, in a statement from the company. .
“Building on more than 40 years of deepwater experience, projects like Vito allow us to generate greater value from the Gulf of Mexico, where our production has the lowest greenhouse gas intensity in the world for production of oil,” Yujnovich added in the statement.
The Vito development is owned by Shell Offshore Inc, with an operating stake of 63.11 percent, and Equinor, which has a 36.89 percent stake.
Commenting on Vito’s launch, Chris Golden, Equinor’s US country manager, said: “Vito is a first-class asset in a key producing region for Equinor.”
“The US Gulf of Mexico provides some of Equinor’s most valuable barrels, helping us meet society’s critical energy needs while maintaining our focus on reducing emissions to become an energy company net zero by 2050,” Golden added.
The Vito field spans four blocks of the outer continental shelf in the Mississippi Canyon and lies in more than 4,000 feet of water, Shell’s website shows. The field was originally discovered in 2009, and Shell announced a final investment decision on the Vito project in April 2018, Shell’s website notes.
The leading US GOM operator
Shell describes itself as the leading operator in the US Gulf of Mexico for oil and gas production. In March 2022, Shell Offshore Inc announced the start of production at PowerNap, which was described by Shell at the time as a link to the Shell-operated Olympus production center in the “prolific” Corridor of Mars. In a company statement in March last year, Shell highlighted that PowerNap had an estimated maximum production of 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day.
“Shell has been producing in the Mars Corridor for more than 25 years and we continue to find ways to unlock even more value there,” Yujnovich said in March 2022.
“PowerNap reinforces a core Upstream position that is critical to achieving our Powering Progress strategy and ensuring we can supply the stable and secure energy resources the world needs today and into the future,” Yujnovich added at the time.
In December 2021, Shell Offshore Inc announced a discovery at the Blacktip North prospect in the US Gulf of Mexico. The Blacktip North well encountered net oil pay of approximately 300 feet at several levels, Shell said in a company statement at the time, adding that evaluation was ongoing to further define options for development
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