Offshore staff

HOUSTON – Development of the $2-billion Lucius project in the Gulf of Mexico’s deepwater Keathley Canyon will proceed. Anadarko Petroleum Corp. and co-venturers have sanctioned the development.

Lucius, in about 7,100 ft (2,164 m) of water will be developed with a truss spar floating production facility with the capacity to produce in excess of 80,000 b/d of oil and 450 MMcf/d of natural gas, says Anadarko. The spar is currently under construction at Technip's facility in Pori, Finland.

Lucius includes portions of Keathley Canyon blocks 874, 875, 918, and 919. Following a unitization agreement, Lucius interest owners signed an agreement with the Hadrian South co-venturers, whereby natural gas produced from the Hadrian South field will be processed through the Lucius facility in return for a production-handling fee and reimbursement for any required facility upgrades.

Co-venturers in the Lucius unit include Plains Exploration & Production Co. with a 23.3% working interest; Exxon Mobil Corp. with a 15% working interest; Apache Deepwater LLC with an 11.7% working interest; Petrobras with a 9.6% working interest; and Eni with a 5.4% working interest. Anadarko has the remaining 35%.

“We are very pleased to achieve this important milestone in the development of the deepwater Lucius project,” said Anadarko President and Chief Operating Officer Al Walker. “We expect Lucius to be among the most economic projects in our portfolio, as we plan to utilize ‘off-the-shelf’ technology and leverage our proven project-management skills in an area where we have extensive expertise.

“We estimate the Lucius unit holds more than 300 MMboe with relatively shallow and highly productive reservoirs that can be developed in a capital-efficient manner. We expect to have an active drilling program in the unit beginning in 2012, and we look forward to working with our partners to achieve first production in 2014.” 





12/15/2011