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Shell Offshore Inc said that its affiliate, Shell E and P Offshore Services BV, will exercise a contractual right to purchase the Turritella floating, production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessel from SBM Offshore. 

The vessel is contracted for the Stones deep-water development in the Gulf of Mexico, which began production last year. Shell and SBM will work over the next several months to achieve a safe, smooth transition of the vessel operations.  

Transitioning the ownership and operations of the vessel to Shell affiliates allows the company to pursue additional efficiencies and achieve cost improvements to deliver shareholder value at Stones with a continued commitment to operational excellence and safety. The Stones development is the world’s deepest offshore oil and gas project and is scheduled to deliver approximately 50,000-barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) by the end of this year. 

The Turritella FPSO has a daily production capacity of approximately 60,000 barrels of oil and 15 million cubic feet of natural gas and fits well within Shell’s global, deep-water portfolio, which includes operations in the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, and Malaysia. Competitive, deep-water oil resources are a growth priority for Shell with global production expected to reach more than 900-thousand boe/d by the early 2020s.

Currently, Shell has three additional Gulf of Mexico deepwater projects under construction – Appomattox, Kaikias, and Coulomb Phase 2 – as well as options for additional subsea tiebacks and Vito, a potential, new hub in the region.