Noble Energy leads return to drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
1 Mar 2011
Houston, Texas - Noble Energy Inc. has received an approved permit to resume drilling at the Santiago prospect in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.
The permit – granted by Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) – marks the restart of well operations, which were suspended in June 2010 as a result of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico drilling moratorium.
Santiago is a middle Miocene amplitude prospect on Mississippi Canyon Block 519. Noble Energy is the operator with a 23.25% holding. Located in 6,500 feet of water, the Santiago exploration well had previously drilled to a depth of 13,585 feet at the time of the moratorium.
Drilling operations are due to resume in late March 2011, targeting total drilling depth of around 19,000 feet, with results expected by the end of May 2011.
The Ensco 8501 rig, which performed completion operations on the Santa Cruz and Isabela discoveries at the Galapagos project during the second half of 2010, will perform the drilling at Santiago.
Noble Energy has worked with a number of operators and service providers to enhance the safety of deepwater drilling operations, including via third party certification of well designs and BOP testing, according to David Stover, Noble Energy’s president and COO.
“Our partnership with others in the Helix Well Containment Group has increased the deepwater Gulf subsea control and containment capabilities,” said Stover.
“The industry has improved its ability to respond to surface spills as well. Our teams have done an outstanding job of coordinating with the BOEMRE on these matters.”
The decision is a “significant milestone” for the offshore oil and gas industry, and is an important step towards safely developing deepwater energy supplies offshore, according to BOEMRE director Michael Bromwich.
“This permit was issued for one simple reason: the operator successfully demonstrated that it can drill its deepwater well safely and that it is capable of containing a subsea blowout if it were to occur,” said Bromwich.
“We expect further deepwater permits to be approved in coming weeks and months based on the same process that led to the approval of this permit,” he added.
According to BOEMRE, which is helping industry adapt and conform to new and rigorous safety practices, Noble Energy met new safety regulations and information requirements in Notices to Lessees (NTL) N06 and N10, and the Interim Final Safety Rule.
These standards are intended to ensure that oil and gas development continues, while meeting unprecedented new safety regulations that are part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to ensure that offshore drilling and production in the US continues as safely as possible.
As part of its approval process, the bureau reviewed Noble Energy’s containment capability available for the specific well proposed in the permit application.
Noble Energy contracted with the Helix Well Containment Group (Helix) to use its capping stack to stop the flow of oil should a well control event occur. The capabilities of the capping stack meet the requirements that are specific to the characteristics of the proposed well.
The approved permit allows the drilling of a bypass well. An operator drills a bypass in order to drill around a mechanical problem in the original hole to the original geologic target from the existing wellbore. In this case, Noble Energy will be drilling around the plugs set in the original well when drilling was suspended in order to complete the project.
