since the lost of 6 of the tendons to install the Big Foot project 2015, the Platform has been sitting dock side at Corpus Christi, Texas. Now they have redesigning going on $$$$$ to go back to a water injection system instead of an ESP pump driven unit, ( proven in the North Sea for years ) this is gonna add more engineering, more cost in control panels and More IO. the cable runs are over flowing as it is now, worst I have ever seen. More cost more man power, now the sail date is the 4th Qtr 2017. no one knows when they can expect first oil. 2018 mid year ? Make a plan, invest, ans stick to it. max production is 74,000 Barrels a day. it will be along time to try and break even on this. I expect the stocks will go down when this gets out. Sad day! this is fact, I was on project!
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Big foot is equipped with water flood as secondary means of recovery already. The ESP's your referring too are subsea, and act as the first line recovery method. They are physically in the well bore. Using only water flood( secondary recovery method) would not yield adequate production flow. ESP's are efficient as it gets as long as you have the massive amounts of electrical power required to operate the pumps. Since big foot wells are not going to be gas producers has lift is not feasible.
ESPs are popular in the North Sea because gas lift (original lift method) was banned after Piper Alpha.
Scott or Britt, not much difference. Still a screwed up project team and embarrassing project. Pitiful.
Kumar, the Big Foot facilities manager was a Scot not a Brit.
The ESPs were chosen over gas lift originally for weight considerations for lifting the oil. Big Foot reservoir has little gas and low pressure and could not adequately flow to the surface without artificial lift. I am not sure water injection for pressuring the reservoir will adequately lift the oil. And I would not believe that there is any space or weight capacity available on the topsides for water injection pumps and piping. The weight control was always over budget or challenged.
Other poster is right that many cable trays are already double layered with cables. But if ESPs are actually removed it may open up space.
Anyway, I wish the project well for Chevron's sake and my continued dividend.
KBR
ESPs are popular in the North Sea, so they must be perfect for the deep water gulf of Mexico. After all, the rocks must be identical as are the reservoir fluids, operating conditions, etc. It is exactly this type of bone-headed, simplistic and outright stupid thinking which has made for disastrous Chevron projects for decades. Only in this case, someone is saying "just do it like we do in the North Sea!" which is a pretty strong indication it is a Brit. More commonly in Chevron we see slack-jawed engineers from Texas or Louisiana saying "let's just do it like we do in the Gulf!"
Who has the contract for the redesign on the water injection.... ?
Kyl is correct. A project managed by losers who have hopefully all been laid off by now unless they were sent to another screwed up project (like Gordon/Wheatstone). Last successful project in GOM was Tahiti. Good project management and Ops reps for that one. Not so for Bigfoot.
We should assume the partners to the JOa all agreed. Actually, spend a little more to delay production for a better market, hmmmmm makes sense to me.
You just have to look at the losers who were on this project. Top to bottom.
agreed
Big Foot should be renamed Big Faux Pas.