The
NewsRoom
Date: February 26, 2005
Secretary Norton Applauds Technological Advances at
Dedication of World’s Largest Offshore Oil Platform
(INGLESIDE,
Texas) - Interior Secretary Gale Norton today joined BP officials in
dedicating the world’s largest and most advanced semi-submersible oil
platform, which will be used to tap into a huge reserve of oil and gas
deep under the Gulf of Mexico.
The Thunder Horse platform is about 50 percent larger than the next
largest floating semi-submersible rig in the world. It includes
advanced technology that will enable it to process 250,000 barrels of
oil and 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day – enough energy
to provide daily energy needs for 6.5 million American homes.
At a development cost of approximately $5 billion, the new platform
features more than 100 technological firsts, including a new
generation of engineering solutions to handle the unique challenges of
tapping into an ultra-deep, high temperature and high pressure
reservoir.
The energy used by the platform itself will be produced from natural
gas from the field below. To maximize efficiency, the platform will
capture waste heat through heat recovery units. This energy then will
be used in the production process.
Similarly,
to prevent routine over-board water discharges, the water produced by
the platform will be commingled with seawater and re-injected for
reservoir pressure maintenance.
“The
Thunder Horse platform exemplifies the revolution in energy production
technology that makes it possible to tap into oil and gas reserves
that previously were inaccessible,” Norton said. “From the Gulf of
Mexico to arctic Alaska, we can increase domestic energy production in
difficult-to-reach places in a safe and environmentally sensitive
way.”
“With
increasing amounts of our oil imported from abroad, these technologies
are vitally important to our nation’s future energy security,” she
said. “It is amazing that so large a structure as Thunder Horse will
have such a tiny environmental footprint, leaving almost no trace of
itself in either the sea or the sky.”
Under
the President’s National Energy Plan, the Interior Department has been
providing incentives to energy companies to take the financial risk of
exploring in deep-water and deep-shelf areas of the gulf. These
incentives, which take the form of royalty relief, ensure taxpayers a
fair return while making it worth the risk for companies to explore
hard-to-reach reserves.
The
Department expects the incentives to boost peak oil production in the
gulf by 43 percent and natural gas production by 13 percent over the
next decade.
“As
we exhaust our nation’s more accessible oil and gas reserves, we must
promote the kind of innovation represented by the Thunder Horse
platform to reach new reserves in places we could never have reached
before,” Norton said.
The
Thunder Horse area, which is 150 miles offshore of Louisiana in the
Gulf of Mexico, has the potential to produce approximately 1 billion
barrels of oil equivalent over the life of the field, making it the
largest discovery in the gulf to date.
“We
estimate the deep water regions of the Gulf may contain over 56
billion barrels of oil equivalent,” said Minerals Management Service
Director Johnnie Burton. “Huge deep water projects like BP’s Thunder
Horse and others are expected to increase our gulf production to more
than 2 million barrels per day within the next two years.”
“The Thunder Horse project is
contributing not only to the nation’s energy security but also to its
economy by providing thousands of jobs,” she said.
MMS, part of the U.S. Department of the Interior,
oversees 1.76 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf, managing
offshore energy and minerals while protecting the human, marine, and
coastal environments through advanced science and technology
research. The OCS provides 30 percent of oil and 23 percent of
natural gas produced domestically, and sand used for coastal
restoration. MMS’s collects, accounts for, and disburses mineral
revenues from Federal and American Indian lands, with Fiscal Year 2004
disbursements of approximately $8 billion and more than $143 billion
since 1982. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, which pays for
acquisition of state and federal park and recreation land, gets nearly
$1 billion a year.
Relevant Web Sites:
MMS Main Website
Media Contacts:
Hugh Vickery
202-501-4633
Dr. Joe Trahan
MMS
504-736-2595
cell 504-343-6668
MMS: Securing Ocean Energy & Economic Value for
America
U.S. Department of the Interior
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