By: Jackie DeAngelis
Chevron is strategically investing in the Gulf of Mexico, spending almost $12 billion and boosting its labor force as it prepares to launch two deep-water platforms now under construction.
The platforms, Jack St. Malo and Big Foot, are named after the fields where they are located. They’re both being assembled at the Kiewit Fabrication Yard in South Texas. Jack St. Malo will make its way into the Gulf by year-end, while Big Foot will head out in 2014. Both are expected to produce first oil by the fourth quarter of 2014.
Joe Gregory, Chevron’s general manager of major capital projects, said the two combined will yield roughly 230,000 barrels of oil per day and called the Gulf push “a significant part of [the company’s] growth strategy.”
Chevron is by no means alone in investing in the Gulf. Analysts estimate that the number of platforms there will grow from 35 now to roughly 60 by the end of 2015, including strategic investments from companies such as Shell and Anadarko.
Jay Machen of Kiewit said the yard “has been very fortunate. … It’s not only been a busy summer but a busy year.” He expects projects to continue through 2015.
Chevron builds its platforms big. Jack St. Malo is about 75,000 tons and will float in 7,000 feet of water, Chevron said. Big Foot will be in a field that is estimated to contain more than 200 million barrels of recoverable resources and will float in 5,000 feet.
Jack St. Malo is being outfitted with the latest in deep-water technology, including sea floor pumps, which allow it to produce oil from a great depth. Some of the technology is “focused on trying to recover additional oil from the reservoirs,” Gregory said.
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