en.Wedoany.com Reported - High-pressure high-temperature technology has matured, driving the development of more deepwater oil resources in the Gulf of Mexico.

Previously, oil and gas discoveries at fields such as Anchor, Shenandoah, and North Platte (renamed Sparta) were deemed unrecoverable due to excessively high reservoir pressure and temperature. As equipment manufacturers enhance existing technological capabilities, these development challenges in Paleogene reservoirs are being addressed. Currently, two fields in the Gulf of Mexico have commenced production using floating production hubs rated for 20,000 psi (20K), with multiple additional 20K psi projects in preparation, three of which involve new hubs.

At the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) held in Houston in May, operators and equipment manufacturers shared the development journey and lessons learned from HPHT projects, while also discussing long-term goals for equipment standardization.

Richard White, Senior Subsea Engineer at Chevron, stated during a panel discussion titled "Offshore HPHT: Aligning Technical Excellence with Commercial Strategy" that between 2006 and 2014, the industry discovered a significant number of lower Tertiary Paleogene reservoirs. These reservoirs were exciting but also presented challenges: they required subsea production technology rated above 15K psi, which was beyond the industry's technical capabilities at the time.

White revealed that after acquiring lease rights, Chevron began considering the application of high-pressure technology for what later became the Anchor project. The company acquired six lease blocks constituting the Anchor area during lease sales in 2003 and 2008.

He said: "We started this work before the discovery."