Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Shell plc (Shell), announced that production has started at the Shell-operated Vito floating production facility in the US Gulf of Mexico (GoM). With an estimated peak production of 100,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, Vito is the company’s first deep-water platform in the GoM to employ a simplified, cost-efficient host design.
The Vito development is owned by Shell Offshore Inc. (63.11% operator) and Equinor (36.89%). In 2015, the original host design was rescoped and simplified, resulting in a reduction of approximately 80% in CO2 emissions over the lifetime of the facility as well as a cost reduction of more than 70% from the original host concept.
Vito also serves as the design standard for our Whale project that will feature a 99% replication of the Vito hull and 80% of Vito’s topsides.
Originally discovered in 2009, the Vito field spans four Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) blocks in the Mississippi Canyon and is located at a depth of more than 4,000 feet of water. The host is located approximately 150 miles southeast of New Orleans and 10 miles south of the Shell-operated Mars TLP.
(Source: Shell)