Canyon Express touts industry firsts, shared infrastructure for deepwater gulf development

• Published in: The Oil & gas journal 2003-05, Vol.101 (20), p.64-69
• Main Author: STEARNS, John
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Canyons; Cost control; Crude oil, natural gas and petroleum products; Crude oil, natural gas, oil shales producing equipements and methods; Design; Design engineering; Energy; Engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Fuels; Gas industry; Gas transmission and distribution. Ships. Pipelines. Distribution networks. Compressors stations; Gathering and pretreatments of oil and gas. Onshore and offshore facilities; Infrastructure; Manufacturing; Offshore; Offshore drilling; Pipelines; Project management; Prospecting and production of crude oil, natural gas, oil shales and tar sands; Records & achievements; Steel pipes; Water depth
• ISSN: 0030-1388; 1944-9151

In September 2002, TotalFinaElf E&P USA Inc. announced first gas on the industry's deepest subsea project to date. The Canyon Express project touts several industry firsts and creates an industry model for continued marginal deepwater development. The project expresses TotalFinaElf's concept of shared infrastructure to facilitate development of several deepwater fields. Industry confidence in the reliability and accuracy of technology designed to measure gas at the wellhead has contributed to the viability of the project philosophy. The flowline design further contributed to the project cost savings and operational reliability of the entire system. Major components of the subsea production equipment include: 1. the christmas trees, 2. the christmas tree choke valve, and 3. the flowline connection system and flowline valves for each of the three Canyon Express fields. As with other aspects of the Canyon Express project, the extreme water depth provided the greatest challenge for both the qualification process and the installation phase of the project.