石油设备网讯 据离岸工程4月22日报道称，目前，美国生产的原油中，每五桶就有一桶来自墨西哥湾（GoM），其中88％来自水深超过500英尺的油层。
2016年，墨西哥湾生产了5.75亿桶石油，2017年生产了6.21亿桶。美国安全与环境执法局（BSEE）局长Scott Angelle表示，2018年，这一数字接近6.39亿桶。2017年，11个墨西哥湾设施生产了全部海上石油的50％，占974个生产设施的1％。十年前， 37个设施生产了，美国墨西哥湾总产量的50％。这37个设施仍然只占当时2118个生产设施的1％。
“这种变化是因为石油勘探已经转移到深水区域，”Angelle表示。“海湾地区正在发生变化。这里的生产设施更少，而且设施较大，位于更深的水域，技术更先进。”
对墨西哥湾资源的乐观情绪是强烈的。去年，赫斯的“Stampede”号和雪佛龙的“Big Foot”张力腿平台开发成功。一系列管道和海底回接工程已经开始生产或计划于2019年投产，壳牌的“Appomattox”号半潜式钻井平台将于今年晚些时候上线。
伍德麦肯兹高级研究分析师William Turner在谈到首个投产的侏罗纪油藏时表示，当Appomattox开始生产时，“这将告诉我们很多东西。每个人都渴望更多地了解这个油藏。它将讲述未来侏罗纪油藏的发展和投资。”
徐蕾 摘译自 离岸工程
原文如下：
US Outlook: Deepwater Production Rising
Currently one in every five barrels produced in the United States comes from the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), and 88% of that output flows from reservoirs in water depths greater than 500 feet.
In 2016 the GoM produced 575 million barrels of oil, and in 2017 621 million barrels. In 2018, it was almost 639 million barrels, according to Scott Angelle, director of Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE). In 2017, 11 GoM facilities produced 50% of all offshore oil, which was 1% of the 974 producing facilities. A decade ago, it took 37 facilities to produce 50% of the total GoM production. The 37 facilities still represented only 1% of the total facilities producing at that time, which was 2,118.
“The change is because oil exploration has moved to deepwater areas,” Angelle says. “The Gulf is changing. There are fewer production facilities, and those facilities are larger, in deeper water and more technologically advanced.”
Optimism in the GoM’s resources is strong. Last year, Hess’s Stampede and Chevron’s Big Foot tension-leg platform developments went onstream. A host of pipeline and subsea tiebacks have begun producing or are slated to begin operation in 2019, and Shell’s Appomattox semisubmersible is slated to go online later this year.
When Appomattox begins production, “that’s going to tell us a lot,” William Turner, senior research analyst at Wood Mackenzie, says of the first Jurassic reservoir to begin production. “Everyone is going to be eager to learn more about that reservoir. It will tell about future development and investment in future Jurassic plays.”
