Shell (LON:SHEL) has announced it will move forward with Dover, a new subsea tieback to its Appomattox hub in the US Gulf of Mexico.
The supermajor’s US unit Shell Offshore confirmed the final investment decision (FID) on Wednesday, paving the way for Dover to start production in either late 2024 or early 2025.
Shell holds a 100% interest in the field, which lies within the Mississippi Canyon, approximately 170 miles offshore southeast of New Orleans, Louisiana in about 7,500 feet of water.
The development concept for Dover is a subsea tieback to the Appomattox production hub – which Shell also operates (79%) alongside partner CNOOC (21%).
Two production wells will output oil through a 17.5-mile flowline and riser back to the hub, and are anticipated to produce up to 21,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) at peak rates.
“Shell is a pioneer in the Norphlet reservoir with Appomattox, and we are building on our leading position in the reservoir with Dover,” said the company’s executive vice president for deepwater Paul Goodfellow.
“Last year we took FID on Rydberg, another subsea tieback to Appomattox, and Dover gives us an opportunity to add to our base in this prolific basin.”
It comes one month after the company started up Vito, also in the Mississippi Canyon.
Based on a new “simplified and cost efficient” design, the Vito platform is a four-column semi-submersible host, with eight subsea wells.
It will tap recoverable resource volumes of 290 million boe, and a goal of reaching production of up to 100,000 boepd.
Production from Vito will flow into Shell Midstream’s Mars Pipeline system.
Another platform based on a similar design – Whale – will soon follow. Shell reached FID on the scheme in 2021 and it is due to begin producing in 2024.