Production has begun at the Woodside-operated Shenzi North project in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.
Shenzi North is a two-well subsea tieback that uses existing Shenzi infrastructure to expand the asset’s production capacity.
The Shenzi North project, on which a final investment decision (FID) was made in July 2021, achieved production ahead of the projected first oil in 2024.
“Taking the project from FID to first oil in 26 months is a great achievement. I commend the project team on safely bringing this resource into production well ahead of schedule,” Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said.
According to O’Neill, the launch of Shenzi North emphasised the significance of Woodside’s US Gulf of Mexico assets, which were acquired as part of the 2022 merger with BHP‘s petroleum business.
“First production from Shenzi North shows how we are leveraging existing infrastructure to increase production and provide attractive returns from our Gulf of Mexico business,” O’Neill added.
As the operator, Woodside owns 72% of the Shenzi conventional oil and gas field, while Repsol owns the remaining 28%. The field is about 195 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana in the Green Canyon extraction area. Shenzi was discovered in 2002, and the first oil and natural gas production began in 2009.
With a capacity of 100,000 bbl/d and 50 MMscf/d, the Shenzi platform produces both oil and gas. The field’s crude oil and natural gas are delivered to connecting pipelines for sale to Gulf Coast customers.
