Luxembourg-domiciled Subsea7 announced the award of a contract between $50 million and $150 million by Shell Offshore Inc. for the Sparta deepwater development in the US.
The project involves the transportation and installation of a floating production system (FPS) at Garden Banks block 959, which is located off the southeastern coast of Louisiana at water depths of up to 1,635 metres.
Project management and engineering activities will begin immediately at Subsea7’s office in Houston, Texas, with offshore operations expected to start in 2027.
It is understood that the Sparta deepwater development project was discovered by Cobalt International Energy in 2012. Shell Offshore and Equinor hold 51% and 49% of the shares respectively. The development plan includes connecting eight production wells to a semi-submersible floating production unit (FPU). The estimated recoverable resources discovered are 244 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d).
In December 2023, the developer of the Sparta deepwater development project made a final investment decision and awarded the contract for the construction and integration of the hull, topsides and living quarters of the Sparta FPU to Singapore’s Seatrium. Construction of the Sparta FPU began in January 2024 and will be installed with equipment provided by Shell and will replicate approximately 95% of the hull and 85% of the topsides of the Whale FPU, with a designed daily production of 90,000 boe/d.
Notably, Sparta is considered Shell’s first replicable project to use all-electric topside compression equipment, which is expected to reduce carbon emissions during operations; it is known as the first integrated engineering, procurement, construction and installation (iEPCI) project to use a high-pressure subsea production system rated up to 20,000 psi (20K), with iEPCI being led by TechnipFMC.
Craig Broussard, Senior Vice President for Subsea7 Gulf of Mexico, said, “We are proud to continue our collaboration with Shell in the US, building on past projects, including the recent Vito development. We look forward to playing a key role in the successful delivery of the Sparta project.”