Royal Dutch Shell plc reported Wednesday will shut in production at its Auger platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to tie back wells from the Cardamom field to Auger.
Shell will retrofit the Auger platform in order to connect Cardamom wells to Auger a half mile beneath the water’s surface. The company will install additional subsea receiving equipment, upgrade an existing process train and mitigating weight to boost the platform’s liquid handling, cooling and production capacities.
The completed subsea system will include five well expandable manifolds, a dual eight-inch flowline and eight well umbilicals.
“Cardamom is a great example of using existing infrastructure to increase oil and gas production in a less capital intensive way,” said John Hollowell, executive vice president for deep water at Shell Upstream Americas, in a statement.
Production from Auger is expected to resume in fourth quarter 2013. Scheduled to come online next year, Cardamom is expected to reach peak production of 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd).
Since production began in 1994, the Auger tension leg platform (TLP) has produced over 300 million barrels of oil equivalent. Auger currently produces approximately 55,000 boepd; Shell’s share of production is around 30,000 boepd.
The Auger TLP, located on Garden Banks Block 426, is a fixed platform installed in 2,860 feet of water. Other fields linked to Auger include Habanero, Llano, Oregano, and Macaroni.
Shell wholly owns and operates the Auger field, which was discovered in 1987 and covers Garden Banks Blocks 426, 427, 470 and 471.
Cardamom is located about 2 miles east of the Auger TLP on Garden Banks 427 and 471 in 2,860 feet of water. Shell drilled the Cardamom discovery well from the Auger TLP; the Cardamom exploration well has produced directly from the Auger TLP since December 2010.
