Gulf of Mexico natural gas production uptick expected
The Department of Interior’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement maintains a series of new projects will reverse the nearly 20-year trend of natural gas production in the Federal Gulf of Mexico (GOM) declining.
Officials said 10 new natural gas production fields are expected to start producing natural gas in 2018, and another eight are expected to start producing in 2019. The efforts may slow or reverse the long-term decline in GOM production. The projects starting in 2018 and 2019 have a combined natural gas resource estimate of about 836 billion cubic feet (Bcf).
The decline in GOM natural gas production stemmed from the number of producing natural gas wells gradually declining, falling from 3,271 in 2001 to 875 in 2017. Officials noted that the technology and expertise required to produce oil and natural gas from the seabed is expensive and specialized, with costs of production platforms can often exceeding one billion dollars.
The new projects in 2018 and 2019 serve as the first in the GOM since 2016. Five projects in the Mississippi Canyon and Green Canyon protraction areas added 1,429 Bcf of natural gas resources.
The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement pinpointed 12 of the new projects are located in Mississippi Canyon and Green Canyon protraction areas while the others are in the Western GOM planning area or Eastern GOM planning area.
