Williams’ infrastructure to serve Shell’s deepwater project

U.S. energy company Williams has reached an agreement with Shell and Chevron for the Whale deepwater project located in the Gulf of Mexico.

Under the deal, Williams agreed to provide offshore natural gas gathering and crude oil transportation services as well as onshore natural gas processing services for the Whale development located approximately 10 miles from the Shell-operated Perdido host facility.

Williams plans to expand its existing Gulf of Mexico offshore infrastructure via a 25-mile gas lateral pipeline build from the Whale platform to the existing Perdido gas pipeline and a new 125-mile oil pipeline to the existing Williams-owned GA-A244 junction platform.

The natural gas will be transported to Williams’ Markham gas processing plant located in Matagorda, TX. The first production is expected to come online in 2024.

“Our asset synergies in the Gulf of Mexico are second to none, and we are pleased to strengthen our existing onshore and offshore infrastructure to further serve the growing needs of deepwater producers”, said Micheal Dunn, chief operating officer at Williams.

“The development of Whale expands Williams’ footprint in the Gulf by contracting one of the largest discoveries in the past decade and creating future connection opportunities for producers that will capture the full value of these important deepwater resources”.

Shell and its partners made a final investment decision (FID) for the Whale development in late July 2021.

Whale will be the second Shell-operated deepwater development in the Gulf of Mexico to employ a simplified, cost-efficient host design through which Shell expects an internal rate of return to be greater than 25 per cent. The development features a 99 per cent replicated hull and an 80 per cent replication of the topsides from the Vito project.

The project is expected to reach peak production of approximately 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) and currently has an estimated, recoverable resource volume of 490 million boe.