Professional Documents
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Access
to Oil and Natural Gas Resources
Access to Domestic Sources
Increasing access to domestic sources of oil and natural gas would
create new high paying jobs, bring billions of dollars to federal
and state treasuries, reduce our balance of payments and enhance
America’s energy security.
Production of oil and natural gas on federal lands has • Local employment also would benefit with the addition
brought billions of dollars of revenue into federal and of construction jobs as well as service and support
state treasuries. These royalties are one of the largest positions.
sources of income to the federal government.
• In 2030, 160,000 jobs would be created.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, in fiscal
year 2008, the agency distributed a record $23.4 billion
1 U.S. Minerals Management Service (MMS) press release, November 29, 2008.
to the federal government, states and American Indian
2 PWC Study, The Economic Impacts of the Oil and Natural Gas Industry on the U.S.
tribes from onshore and offshore energy production. Economy: Employment, Labor Income and Value Added, September 2009.
Nearly $22 billion of that amount came from oil and
natural gas production.
A SPAR Platform (SPAR) consists of a large diameter A Subsea System (SS) ranges from single subsea wells
single vertical cylinder supporting a deck. It has a typical producing to a nearby platform, FPS, or TLP to multiple
fixed platform topside (surface deck with drilling and wells producing through a manifold and pipeline system
production equipment), three types of risers (production, to a distant production facility. These systems are
drilling, and export), and a hull which is moored using presently used in water depths greater than 5,000 feet.
a taut caternary system of six to twenty lines anchored
into the seafloor. SPARs are presently used in water A Floating Production, Storage and Offloading System
depths up to 3,000 feet, although existing technology (FPSO) consists of a large tanker type vessel moored to
can extend its use to water depths as great as 7,500 feet. the seafloor. An FPSO is designed to process and stow
production from nearby subsea wells and to periodically
A Floating Production System (FPS) consists of a offload the stored oil to a smaller shuttle tanker. The
semi-submersible unit which is equipped with drilling shuttle tanker then transports the oil to an onshore
and production equipment. It is anchored in place with facility for further processing. An FPSO may be suited
wire rope and chain, or can be dynamically positioned for marginally economic fields located in remote
using rotating thrusters. Production from subsea wells deepwater areas where a pipeline infrastructure
is transported to the surface deck through production does not exist.
risers designed to accommodate platform motion.
The FPS can be used in ultra deep water.
Subsea Technology
The search for resources deep below the ocean has spurred
tremendous technological innovation, including the ability
to produce and transport these resources using equipment
installed on the floor of the ocean.
Subsea production The equipment on the seafloor is maintained using
systems include a series robots, known as Remote Operating Vehicles (ROVs),
of gathering lines that which are tethered to a vessel. ROVs serve as eyes
connect the production underwater for these operations, and are designed
from multiple wells into to connect to the subsea equipment.
a single processing hub,
allowing the production These systems are being installed at depths of almost
from the wells to be 10,000 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, where
Image courtesy of Shell transported to a platform, deepwater development plays a significant role in
where the oil, gas and produced water are separated current and future energy production. Using this
for transport to shore through a pipeline. The most advanced technology, producers can use a single
sophisticated systems operate as a processing system platform to develop resources from 40 miles away.
underwater, separating the oil, gas and produced waters
so the product can go directly into pipelines to shore.
How amazing is this technology? • Anadarko’s Independence Hub, the largest natural
gas producing facility in the Gulf of Mexico, is the first
Drillships positioned in the deep waters of the Gulf of energy hub facility in the world and it is capable of
Mexico can drill to a total depth of about 40,000 feet handling 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day.
to find resources. These drillships can operate in water A total of 16 wells from 10 natural gas fields in the
that is almost 10,000 feet deep – that’s almost two Eastern Gulf of Mexico flow into this single semi-
miles to the ocean floor – and then another 30,000 submersible platform. They account for about 11
feet below that. percent of the total gas production from the Gulf.
The facility has the capacity to add an additional
• The record water depth for drilling and completing a 10 wells, if new discoveries are allowed.
well in the Gulf of Mexico is 9,356 feet – Shell set that
record in December 2008 at its Perdido Development
4 “Deepwater Gulf of Mexico 2009: Interim Report of 2008 Highlights,”
about 200 miles south of Houston. Perdido also set a U.S. Department of the Interior, Minerals Management Service, May 2009
new record as the deepest SPAR, installed in 8,000 feet
of water. It is expected to begin production in 2010.
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