Chevron to expand Gulf of Mexico production at its St. Malo field

[Elderberry]

Houston Chronicle by  Jordan Blum Sep. 19, 2019

Chevron said Thursday it planned to significantly expand production at its St. Malo field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The fourth phase of its Jack/St. Malo development involves drilling new wells and injecting water into existing wells to churn out more oil and extend the life of the project.

The overall development is expected to produce more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalent over the course of over 30 years, including more than 175 million barrels from this so-called "waterflood project."

Water injection isn't used as often in the deepwater Gulf because of the strong initial recovery from wells and the associated costs with the additional water injection.

The Jack and St. Malo project, which came online nearly five years ago, is named for a pair of oil fields located within 25 miles of each other about 280 miles south of New Orleans.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Chevron-to-expand-Gulf-of-Mexico-production-at-14452040.php

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Houston Chronicle by  Jordan Blum Sep. 19, 2019

Chevron said Thursday it planned to significantly expand production at its St. Malo field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The fourth phase of its Jack/St. Malo development involves drilling new wells and injecting water into existing wells to churn out more oil and extend the life of the project.

The overall development is expected to produce more than 500 million barrels of oil equivalent over the course of over 30 years, including more than 175 million barrels from this so-called "waterflood project."

Water injection isn't used as often in the deepwater Gulf because of the strong initial recovery from wells and the associated costs with the additional water injection.

The Jack and St. Malo project, which came online nearly five years ago, is named for a pair of oil fields located within 25 miles of each other about 280 miles south of New Orleans.

More: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Chevron-to-expand-Gulf-of-Mexico-production-at-14452040.php

Another reason is that these type of deepwater wells are spaced materially much further apart, making it difficult to achieve true 'waterflooding'.

As a result, I suspect this is more like a pressure maintenance project rather than a waterflood.