Chevron awards another Big Foot contract

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Dec. 4 -- Chevron USA Inc. let a contract to FloaTEC LLC for front-end engineering and design of the hull, mooring, and risers for the Big Foot dry-tree floating drilling and production facility in 5,300 ft of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

Chevron earlier let a FEED contract to KBR Inc. for topsides (OGJ Online, Nov. 2, 2009).

Big Foot oil field is on Walker Ridge Block 29 about 200 miles from New Orleans.

The hull of the proposed facility would be an extended tension-leg platform based on proprietary technology of FloaTEC, a deepwater joint venture of Keppel FELS and J. Ray McDermott.

FloaTEC also will assist with cost estimates and plans for later development phases.

Chevron’s partners in the block are Statoil Gulf of Mexico LLC and Marubeni Oil & Gas (USA) Inc.