Stones Deep-Water Project
Construction has been completed on the floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) for Stones, an ultra deep water oil and gas development that will host the deepest production facility in the world.
September 2016
In September 2016, Shell started production at Stones in the US Gulf of Mexico. Stones is the world’s deepest and oil and gas project, operating in around 9,500 feet (2,900 meters ) of water in an ultra-deep area of the US Gulf of Mexico.
The host facility for the world’s deepest offshore oil and gas project is a floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel. The FPSO connects to subsea infrastructure which produces oil and gas from reservoirs nearly 30,000 feet below sea level. Stones is Shell’s second producing field in the Lower Tertiary geologic frontier in the Gulf of Mexico, following Perdido in 2010.
Project Information
- Location: Gulf of Mexico; 200 miles southwest of New Orleans, Louisiana
- Depth: Water depth ~9,500 feet; reservoir depth ~26,500 feet below sea level
- Interests: Shell 100% owner and operator
- Fields: Stones field, discovered 2005
- Production: An estimated 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) per day at peak production
November 2015
In November 2015, the Turritella FPSO for Stones set sail from Singapore to its final destination in the Gulf of Mexico. The project is located in the Gulf of Mexico’s lower tertiary geologic trend, a new frontier in deep water where Shell achieved first commercial production with Perdido.
Phase one of the project includes eight subsea production wells tied back to the FPSO. Multiphase seafloor pumping is planned for a later phase to pump oil and gas from the seabed to the vessel, increasing recoverable volumes and production rates.
Images of the 2015 Sailaway
With nearly 16 million hours of work safely completed during construction, this vessel has departed Singapore for its home in the Gulf of Mexico to support Shell’s Stones project.
Shell is one step closer to achieving first oil at its Stones (Shell 100%) development from the world’s deepest floating production facility. Once it reaches the Gulf of Mexico, this facility will connect to subsea infrastructure located beneath 9,500 feet of water, breaking the existing water depth record for an oil and gas production facility.
Part of the Shell Stones project, this facility will be the world’s deepest, safely and responsibly unlocking energy resources in record depths of water to help meet global demand. Aside from being the world’s deepest facility, it also features an industry-first application of combining a disconnectable buoy with steel lazy wave risers – steel pipe with in-line buoyancy that absorbs the vessel’s motion and boosts riser performance at extreme depths.
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