BP Exploration & Production Inc. let a front-end engineering design contract to Technip for a spar hull and mooring systems for the second phase of development of deepwater Mad Dog oil and gas field in the Gulf of Mexico.
The contract is the first under a 10-year master agreement the companies entered last year for spar development (OGJ Online, May 3, 2011).
The Phase 2 spar will be installed on Green Canyon Block 825 near the first Mad Dog spar, provided by Technip in 2004 and on stream since 2005, which is moored in 4,500 ft of water on Green Canyon Block 782.
BP said last year that extensions had boosted its estimate of the Mad Dog resource to as much as 4 billion boe in place. It said at the time that it was considering installation of another spar with production capacity of 120,000-140,000 boe/d (OGJ Online, Sept. 8, 2011).
Bob Tippee has been chief editor of Oil & Gas Journal since January 1999 and a member of the Journal staff since October 1977. Before joining the magazine, he worked as a reporter at the Tulsa World and served for four years as an officer in the US Air Force. A native of St. Louis, he holds a degree in journalism from the University of Tulsa.
