With the arrival of the Appomattox platform to the deepwater Gulf of Mexico in May, Shell moved closer to first production of the related fields, which are expected to start production in 2019. At its peak, the Appomattox development is expected to produce 175,000 boe/d.
To move that product to market, the Mattox Pipeline Co. LLC, jointly owned by Shell and Nexen, is building the Mattox pipeline, a roughly 90-mi, 24-in. system that will move the produced crude oil from the Appomattox semisubmersible to an existing system, and from there to onshore markets.
Mattox will move the oil from the Appomattox platform in Mississippi Canyon block 437 westward to the existing Proteus pipeline system in South Pass 89. At its deepest, Mattox will reside in roughly 7,250 ft of water. The slope of the Gulf becomes less deep as the pipeline moves west, such that in South Pass 89 the pipeline will lie in 394 ft of water.
The Mattox pipeline is the first long-distance, large-diameter deepwater crude pipeline to be built in the Gulf of Mexico in recent years. But in addition to that, for Shell, Mattox represents a key component of its “corridor strategy” for pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico – a strategy that it has employed and built upon for decades.
Shell selected the pipelay vessel Solitaire to perform the deepwater installation, based on her flooded holding capacity for the 24-in. pipeline.
