World’s Deepest Offshore Drilling Rig Takes Root

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi would do Americans a favor by learning more about the Perdido Regional Development Spar and discarding her misguided talking points about how it would take 10 years or more to reap benefits from new offshore drilling efforts Congress might approve.

As the son of a now-retired petroleum geologist, I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about the oil and gas industry; still, I learn something about the industry on a regular basis.  Today, that “something” came by way of an e-mail about Perdido sent to me, indirectly, by Ignacio Gonzalez at Shell.

The e-mail offered details and a link to a video about the enormous facility’s recent arrival in the ultra-deep Gulf of Mexico waters 200 miles south of Freeport, Texas.

Below are the “nutshell” details of what I learned and what every American needs to know about Perdido:

• Currently, Perdido is being secured to the sea floor in about 8,000 feet of water;

• Once completed, Perdido will be nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower;

• Perdido will be the deepest oil development in the world, the deepest drilling and production platform in the world and have the deepest subsea well in the world;

• Perdido is expected to produce between 100,000 and 130,000 barrels of oil per day — enough, after refinement that is, to supply the gasoline needs of some 132,000 automobiles per day — and 200 million standard cubic feet of natural gas; and

• Perdido is expected to be operational in 2010.

Add five or six new offshore drilling platforms like Perdido to the mix, and we can substantially reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Click here to watch a video about Perdido.

To follow the progress of Perdido, click here.

For more information about the project area and view maps, click here.

-- Bob McCarty Writes

Hat tip:  Jane Van Ryan at API