Petronius (VK786) - Chevron

Profile for Petronius (VK786) - Chevron Oil and Gas Project

Location

The Petronius oil and gas field is located in the Viosca Knoll Block 786, in the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 210 km (130.5 miles) southeast of New Orleans, United States. The exact coordinates are 29.198, -87.7975 (WGS 84).

Operator and Ownership

The project is operated by Chevron, with Marathon holding a 50% partnership.

Discovery and Production

• The Petronius field was discovered in 1995.
• Production began in 2000.

Infrastructure

• The Petronius platform is a deepwater compliant tower oil platform, built from 1997 to 2000.
• The platform stands 640 meters (2,100 feet) tall from the mudline, with only about 75 meters (246 feet) above the waterline. It is designed to be flexible to cope with sea forces and can deflect by more than 2% of its height.
• The compliant tower weighs around 43,000 tons, and the topside weighs an additional 7,500 tons. The topside is 64 meters (210 feet) by 43 meters (141 feet) by 18.3 meters (60 feet) high and includes 21 well slots.

Production Capacity

• The platform has a maximum production capacity of 60,000 barrels of oil per day and 100 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Production and Reserves

• As of 2019, the remaining reserves were estimated at 3 million barrels of oil and 243.52 million cubic meters of gas.
• Cumulative production as of 2019 included 161.9 million barrels of oil and 5,722.78 million cubic meters of gas.
• In 2020, the annual production was 1.45 million barrels of oil and 109.13 million cubic meters of gas. By 2022, this had decreased to 0.53 million barrels of oil and 36.39 million cubic meters of gas per year.
• The field originally had 162 million barrels of oil and 200 billion cubic feet of gas reserves. As of the end of 2016, it had produced over 96% of its original oil reserves and about 95% of its original gas reserves.

Transportation

• Oil from the Petronius field is transported via the Odyssey Oil Pipeline.

Geology and Reservoir

• The field is located in water depths of approximately 1,754 feet (535 meters).
• The reservoir modeling focuses on the J-2 Sand in Block VK 786, which has been developed with nine production and four water injection wells. The field includes several sand layers, including J-1, J-2, J-3, J-4, and J-5, each with different oil and gas reserves.

Construction and History

• Construction of the platform began in 1997 by J Ray McDermott, with the seabed mooring system. The initial contract was budgeted at $200 million, but total costs were around $500 million.
• The installation of the North Module was completed in November 1998, while the South Module installation attempt failed in December 1998. A replacement module was installed by Saipem 7000 in May 2000.

Current Status

• The field has been in production since 2000 and has seen a decline in production rates over the years. As of 2017, the oil production had declined to 6,000 barrels per day, making the field a candidate for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques, such as CO2 injection.