Shell has started production from the Stones development in the Gulf of Mexico. Stones is expected to produce around 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) when fully ramped up at the end of 2017.
The host facility for the world’s deepest offshore oil and gas project is a FPSO (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading) vessel and produces through subsea infrastructure beneath 9,500 feet (2,900 meters) of water.
Stones, which is 100 per cent owned and operated by Shell, is the company’s second producing field from the Lower Tertiary geologic frontier in the Gulf of Mexico, following the start-up of Perdido in 2010.