Shell Offshore Inc., a subsidiary of Shell plc, announced that production has started at the Shell-operated Vito floating production facility in the US Gulf of Mexico. 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 Gulf 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.
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.
Current estimated recoverable resource volume of the primary Vito development is 290m BOE.
