Tag: natural gas production

Gulf of Mexico update

Bob Meltz 122 Comments

Through 2021 the federal waters of the northern Gulf of Mexico (OCS) have cumulative production of 23.4 Bbo and 193 Tcf.  The deepwater (water depths > 1000’ as defined by BOEM) has produced 10.2 Bbo and 23.5 Tcf while the shelf has produced 13.2 Bbo and 169.5 Tcf.  From a BOE standpoint, the GOM has primarily been a gas province, and the bulk of that production has come from shelf fields.  While the shelf has produced more cumulative oil than deepwater, over 90% of current oil production comes from deepwater fields. 

First production from the OCS occurred in 1947.  First deepwater production was in 1979 from Shell’s Cognac field in 1022’ of water.  GOM oil production in December 2021 was 1.69 mmbopd as per BSEE.  As Ovi says in his monthly updates, if GOM were a state, it would be the 2nd leading oil producing state in the US, only behind Texas.

Brief history of GOM gas production

GOM gas production peaked in 1997 at 14.4 bcf/day and has been declining ever since.  Current gas production is about 2 bcf/day. 

Figure 1 – GOM gas production, with shelf and deepwater broken out.  Data from BOEM.

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Norway Part II – Production and Wellbores

George Kaplan 133 Comments
A Guest Post by George Kaplan

Annual Production

Overall Norwegian oil production peaked in 2000 but, thanks to the Johan Sverdrup discovery, it is heading for a secondary peak in the next couple of years. Phase I of the development started in 2019 and has design capacity of 440kboed (70kSm3/d) and Phase II is due in late 2022, raising the total capacity to 700kboed of which 535kbpd (85kSm3/d) is crude. The development uses predrilled wills over which the platforms are installed and tied-in, so ramp up was, for Phase I, and will be, for Phase II, rapid. To find a field this size in a mature basin (it is in the North Sea) is unusual, possibly unique so far in offshore oil developments.

For some years Troll has been the largest single oil producer, coming from horizontal oil wells exploiting the oil rim in one half of the field, but recently Troll III was started which produces from the gas cap above the rim, so oil production will now fall.

In the chart green bands are fields in the North Sea, blue-green those in the Norwegian Sea, and the couple of thin blue ones those in the Barents Sea. The 2021 values are only through July.

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