GLOBAL DATA

null

null

null

This month Infield Systems Ltd looks at the market for subsea trees in the Gulf of Mexico. Taken from Infield�s Offshore Energy Database, which tracks all offshore projects around the world, the data shows details regarding subsea wells brought, and forecast to be brought, onstream over the period 2002 to 2010.

Traditionally, it is thought that deep and ultra deepwater are solely the realms of the majors and supermajors. However, the next few years are set to see the independents in the Atwater Valley Partnership pushing the maximum water depths of subsea completions to new records with fields such as Atlas, Spiderman, San Jacinto, and Cheyenne expected to be completed and tied back to the Independence Hub platform.

An interesting point is that the Gulf-wide average depth for independents is brought down by the many potential shallow water tiebacks they have. This is a trend that is likely to continue as companies are driven forward by high oil prices and find tieback marginal field developments more attractive propositions.

While there are few major ultra deepwater projects on the horizon, and those which are look likely to be developed by majors, tieback activity should see a healthy ‘tick-along’ subsea market fuelled by independent operators in a range of water depths.
Howard Wright, Senior Analyst