Shell Offshore Inc. (Shell), a subsidiary of Shell plc, has taken final investment decision (FID) on a waterflood project at its Vito asset in the US Gulf of Mexico. Water will be injected into the reservoir formation to displace additional oil to adjacent production wells, while repressurizing the reservoir.
The waterflood project, expected to begin in 2027, will increase recoverable resource volume by 60 MMboe, the company said in a release Aug. 14. The estimate of resources volumes is currently classified as 2P and 2C.
Vito field, which spans four Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) blocks in the Mississippi Canyon, was discovered in July 2009 in more than 4,000 ft of water about 75 miles south of Venice, La., 150 miles southeast of New Orleans and 10 miles south of the Shell-operated Mars tension-leg platform. First oil was achieved in February 2023 (OGJ Online, Feb. 16, 2023).
In 2015, the original Vito host design was simplified and rescoped, resulting in a reduction of about 80% in CO2 emissions over the lifetime of the platform as well as a cost reduction of more than 70% from the original host design concept, the company noted.
Shell is operator at Vito with 63.11% interest. Equinor holds the remaining 36.89%.
