Jolliet: The Project

Abstract

This paper overviews the management, design, fabrication and installation of the Jolliet Project and briefly summarizes the companion Marquette Project. This work includes the Tension leg Well Platform (TLWP), the central Production Platform (CPP), 54 miles of pipeline and the GC52A drilling platform. The TLWP is the first-ever tension leg well platform and is the world's deepest offshore production platform. The project took four years to design, fabricate and install. This paper discusses the field history, concept development, the scope of the project, and its management, design and construction. INTRODUCTION The Jolliet Field in the Gulf of Mexico Green canyon GC Block 184 was discovered in May of 1981 with a well drilled in 1,500 feet of water. A further six wells, over a four-and-a-half-year period, were required before development was approved in early 1986. Evolution of the development concept also occurred during this time period. The oil price crash of 1986 delayed construction but not detailed engineering of the TLWP. Once construction work was approved in 1987, the project went into high gear, completing the drilling of twenty wells, installation of a 1,760 feet world record water depth tension leg platform, over fifty miles of pipelines, a large central production facility in 616 feet of water and commencement of well completions and oil production. This was accomplished in less than three years and nine percent below the original budget. The projects are named after Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette, the 17th century French Canadian explorers of the Mississippi River. Their spirit of exploration of the unknown is shared by the men and women who worked on these projects. This paper overviews the history and accomplishments of the project and sets the stage for the nine other papers which comprise the Jolliet Project Special sessions. FIEID HISTORY Green canyon Block 184 is in the Flexure Trend on the continental slope in the Gulf of Mexico, about one hundred miles offshore central Louisiana (Figure 1). The lease was acquired by conoco, Getty and cities service oil companies as equal partners in November of 1980 for a bid of $7.aMM. It was a five-year Net Profits Share lease (NPSL) with a 100 percent capital recovery factor and a 50 percent net profit share factor. In simplified terms, this means that no conventional royalty is paid on production from the lease. Instead, 50 percent of the net revenue of the lease is paid to the MMS after 200 percent of money invested in the lease, prior to production, has been recovered by the lessees.