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West Delta 143 Facility
West Delta 143 is a hub facility for deepwater oil and gas production, located in 390 feet of water, about 90 miles from New Orleans. The facility is operated by Shell Exploration & Production Company (SEPCo), and is owned by SEPCo (71.5 %) and BP (28.5%).
West Delta 143 is composed of two bridge connected platforms. West Delta 143A was the original structure, a deck and facilities installed in March 1997 on an in situ jacket purchased from Marathon.
WD143A was originally designed to act as a pipeline transition point for Shell’s Mars production, but in 1998, facilities were added to the platform to accommodate oil and gas production from the Ursa tension leg platform and gas processing / glycol processing and injection equipment for the Mensa subsea production system.
Facilities consist of gas receiving and point of sales equipment, pigging equipment for the oil pipelines, a 6600 HP compressor for the Mars gas pipeline, Mensa gas and condensate treating and sales, the platform control room and utilities.
In August 1999, the West Delta 143 hub was expanded to accommodate additional condensate and glycol processing equipment for Mensa, gas compression for the Mars gas pipeline and a pump station for the Mars and Ursa pipelines. A new deck and jacket (WD143B) were built, and a walkway was installed to connect the two structures.
WD143B facilities consist of three 6600 HP pumps to accommodate increased production from Mars and Ursa, state-of-the-art ethylene glycol processing and reclamation facilities, and additional space for future compression facilities and pipeline tie ins. Quarters for 40 people are also included.
J. Ray McDermott | Deck and jacket |
|---|---|
| Bay Construction | Piping and equipment packages |
| Colt Engineering | Detailed engineering and design for glycol packages |
| Canadian Chemical Reclaiming | Glycol reclamation license |
The facilities are currently designed to handle 700 mmcf gas per day, 450,000 barrels of oil per day and to reprocess 600 barrels of ethylene glycol per day. There is space for additional upgrades.
Production currently comes from the Mars tension leg platform in Mississippi Canyon 807, 41 miles south, from the Ursa tension leg platform in Mississippi Canyon 809, 46 miles south and from the Mensa subsea production system in Mississippi Canyon 685, 63 miles southeast of the hub facility.
At West Delta 143, the oil production is transferred to a 24" pipeline and is transported to storage facilities at Clovelly, LA, 83 miles away. The gas production is transferred to a 30" pipeline for transportation to the Venice, LA, gas plant, 44 miles away.