Environmental Studies Program Direction:
Accelerated Deepwater Activities
MMS Perspective
The MMS conducted a workshop in April, 1997 with
participation from academia, industry, and other federal agencies to define environmental
and socioeconomic research issues resulting from accelerated oil and gas activities in the
Gulf of Mexico, particularly in deep water areas.
The great increase of activity in deepwater
began around 1995 in part because of the Deep Water Royalty Relief Act. The development of
three-dimensional (3D) and subsalt geophysical technologies, and the development of new
deepwater drilling and development technologies have also contributed to this increase in
activity. It is not something that took MMS by surprise. The Gulf of Mexico program has
supported deepwater field programs since the 1980’s.
The surge in deepwater (defined conveniently
as 1000 ft or greater) can be seen in a variety of statistics. In terms of leasing, total
bids and tracts leased in 1995, 1996 and 1997 have seen previous records smashed. Each
successive Central and Western lease sale has proven to be bigger than the past. Over 1000
tracts were leased in the most recent sale, number 166. This single sale number can be
contrasted with the total of 1508 leased by the end of 1992. The percent of deep leases in
each sale closely tracks the progressive relief in 200-400m, 400-800m and 800+m (ultra
deep) depth bands.
Deep operations are going to be different. A
simple example is the effect on MMS inspections. Today inspection may involve offshore
trips of 80 to 100 miles. In the near future trips longer than 200miles will be common.
Because of cost considerations, operations will employ different technologies. Rigid
structures spanning from the surface to the bottom are impractical much beyond 1000 ft.
Subsurface systems tied back to shallow structures, spars, tension leg platforms, and
other technologies will be used increasingly. Again related to costs, deep production will
be high and employ horizontal wells. Today only a few shelf-depth platforms produce at
over 5000 barrels per day. By contrast, Auger produces at 13, 000 bpd, and production as
high as 25,000 bpd is anticipated. Currently deep production is about 6% of total Gulf OCS
activity, up from only 1% in 1992. By the end of the decade it is estimated that
production may exceed 1.6 million barrels per day. A large fraction of this doubling will
result from deep wells.
The MMS technical, safety and environmental reviews of these proposed deepwater
activities will take longer and require new expertise. MMS is working diligently to keep
pace with evolving deepwater issues and will use the deliberations of the April, 1997
workshop to help guide future study efforts.
For more information, contact James Cimato.
