U.S. Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service Gulf of Mexico OCS Region

The Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, announces the availability of a new report, Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Systems in the Gulf of Mexico; Proceedings of a Workshop, Houston, April 16, 1997. The deepwater of the Gulf of Mexico, defined as water deeper than 1,000 feet, has experienced an amazing development of oil and gas exploration and production during the past ten years. Given the hostile natural conditions and the innate complexity of extracting oil and gas from waters so deep and so far from shore, the oil industry has encountered unprecedented challenges that tax the skill of engineers and technicians. To discuss these challenges and the manners in which they can be met, the Minerals Management Service of the U.S. Department of the Interior has been working with Deepstar, an industry-wide cooperative effort focused on joint technology development to advance reliable systems for deepwater fields. In April 1997 they held a joint workshop in Houston to discuss just one area of the deepwater challenge: processing and storing the oil and gas once it has been brought up thousands of feet to a floating deepwater platform, and transporting them to shore by means other than a pipeline.

This proceedings volume is the outcome of that meeting; it contains the welcoming address by Chris Oynes, MMS Regional Director for the Gulf of Mexico, synopses of the presentations and addresses of a number of knowledgeable delegates, and brief sketches of regulatory concerns and requirements. Affixed to the report is an extensive appendix of much of the material presented– engineering reports and line drawings; photographs of offshore installations, floating production systems, and floating production storage and offloading systems; copies of slide texts, and the like.

The report, Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading Systems in the Gulf of Mexico; Proceedings of a Workshop, Houston, April 16, 1997 (OCS Report MMS 98-0019), is available from the Minerals Management Service, Gulf of Mexico OCS Region, at the cost of $10 a copy by referencing OCS Report MMS 98-0019. It is also available on the MMS homepage at www.mms.gov, and will be available from NTIS in the near future. Technical questions about content should be directed to Mr. James Regg at (504) 736-2843. Addresses and telephone numbers are found below:

MMS is the Federal Agency that manages the Nation's oil and gas and other mineral resources on the OCS and collects, accounts for, and disburses about $6 billion yearly in revenues from Federal offshore leases and Federal and Indian onshore mineral leases.