''Perdido'' (Spanish for ''lost'') is the deepest floating

oil platform An oil platform (or oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, and similar terms) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platfor ...

in the world at a water depth of about 2450 meters (8040 feet) operated by the

Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States-based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

. The platform is located in the Perdido fold belt which is a rich discovery of crude oil and natural gas. The Perdido

spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

began production in 2010 and its peak production is 100,000

barrels of oil equivalent The barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) is a unit of energy based on the approximate energy released by burning one barrel (, or ) of crude oil. The BOE is used by oil and gas companies in their financial statements as a way of combining oil and natur ...

(ca. 16,000 m³/d) and 200 million cubic feet of gas per day (ca. 5.7*10⁶ m³/d).

Construction and assembly

The

and the topsides of the Perdido were constructed separately and then assembled in its final position in the Gulf of Mexico. The Perdido's hull or spar was constructed by Technip in Pori, Finland. A barge shipped the 22,000 tonne spar 13,200 kilometres (8,200 miles) from the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

to the Gulf of Mexico. After floating the spar, it was towed to its final home above the Alaminos canyon 320 kilometres (120 miles) from the shore. The spar was rotated by the ''

Balder Baldr (also Balder, Baldur) is a god in Germanic mythology. In Norse mythology, Baldr (Old Norse: ) is a son of the god Odin and the goddess Frigg, and has numerous brothers, such as Thor and Váli. In wider Germanic mythology, the god was kno ...

'' from a horizontal to a vertical floating position by pumping water through hoses attached to the spar. It was then anchored by the ''Balder'' to piles in the seafloor. The platform has three decks or topsides which support the oil and gas processing units, a drilling rig and living quarters for the workers. The topsides were designed by Alliance Engineering and constructed by Kiewit Offshore in Corpus Christi, Texas. The temperature difference between Finland and Texas posed a challenge in assembling the pieces as the components built in cold of northern Europe expand in the heat of the Gulf of Mexico. Computer-guided lasers marked out the measurements to ensure precision. After the decks were constructed, in March 2009 the ''

Thialf Thialf is an ice arena in Heerenveen, Netherlands. Thialf consists of the Thialf-hal (a 12,500-capacity speed skating venue) and the Elfstedenhal (a 2,500-capacity ice hockey venue). Thialf is used for long track speed skating, short track speed ...

'' lifted the 9,500 tonne topsides onto four posts on the spar and slotted it into position. The Perdido has the ability to adjust the tension of the mooring cables which allows it to move around in the area of a soccer field. This is used to be placed - if needed - directly above one of the 22 wellheads on the seafloor.

Operation

Operated by Shell, with JV partners Chevron (37.5%) and BP (27.5%), the spar acts as a hub for and enables development of three fields Great White, Tobago, and Silvertip. The oil and gas fields beneath the platform lie in a geological formation holding resources estimated at 3-15 billion barrels of oil equivalent according to a report by the BSEE, formerly known as the MMS. At peak production, Perdido processes 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day, and 200 million cubic feet of gas. Perdido extracts oil from 35 of subsea wells, of which 22 lie beneath the spar, while 13 wells are located eight miles west of the platform. These are connected via a 44 kilometre (27 mile) network of pipelines on the ocean floor the manifold below the platform, where the oil is pumped upwards in five flexible pipes called risers. This complicated subsea installation is needed, as the reservoir pressure is rather low which means the transport from the seafloor to the ocean surface needs pumps, the number of which had to be minimized.Jon Excell
Building Perdido – the world’s deepest floating oil platform
The Engineer, 2009-10-26. A workforce of 172 people keep it up and running. They work in 12-hour shifts for 2 weeks followed by 2 weeks off back on land.

Safety

The platform has extensive safety equipment to protect workers in this remote location. It has the largest rescue boat used on any Shell facility, which has room for 24 people. The living quarters are blast-resistant. Perdido's

helipad A helipad is a landing area or platform for helicopters and powered lift aircraft. While helicopters and powered lift aircraft are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard s ...

can accommodate two

Sikorsky S-92 The Sikorsky S-92 is an American twin-engine medium-lift helicopter built by Sikorsky Aircraft Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1 ...

helicopters that can carry 19 passengers each.

Notes

References

Inside Perdido
Shell.com

Shell.com

Shell.com *

External links

*Excell, Jon
Shell's Perdido platform will be world's deepest
''The Engineer'', 2 November 2009 * Clanton, Brett
Shells Perdido blazes a deep water trail
''Houston Chronicle'', April 18, 2010 * *Fahey, Jonathan
Deepwater oil rig work takes a certain attitude
NBC news, 1/3/2012

retrieved 28/03/2013
Scale diagram in the Skyscraper page
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