Delta House Project Overview

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the Delta House Project. The Delta House Floating Production System (FPS) in located in the Mississippi Canyon protraction area of the Gulf of Mexico in block 254 and will initially process production from three "anchor" fields varying from six to fourteen miles from the FPS. The FPS uses the Exmar Offshore designed OPTI-1100® semisubmersible design which has a nameplate capacity of 80 MBOPD and 200 MMCFD with peaking capacity of 100 MBOPD and 240 MMCFD. The Delta House anchor fields are primarily oil bearing Miocene sands in a channel levee turbidite depositional environment. Seven wells have been drilled to date in the initial anchor fields. Each anchor field will be developed with (i.e. wet trees) flowing to subsea manifolds and subsequently to the FPS via two infield flowloops using steel catenary risers. The project includes a 12" oil export line and 16" gas export line using steel catenary risers. There are several unusual aspects of the Delta House project. The project went from first discovery to first production in about three years which is significantly less than other projects involving a new FPS. Engineering for the FPS and bidding of construction yards began prior to the first Delta House discovery. The Delta House FPS and export lines are owned by special purpose entities funded primarily by private equity. This paper will provide a history of the project and will highlight the reasons for some of the key decisions that were made throughout the development.