Shell Offshore, Inc. has announced that its affiliate, Shell E and P Offshore Services B.V., 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.
The Turritella FPSO has a daily production capacity of approximately 60 000 bbls of oil and 15 million ft3 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 900 000 bpd by the early 2020s.