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Chevron launches production at deepwater project that aims to lower carbon intensity off offshore activity

Chevron's newest deepwater oil and natural gas production project, called the Anchor, is an all-electric facility. Photo courtesy of Chevron

Chevron's new massive deepwater oil and natural gas project in the Gulf of Mexico is officially up and running.

Chevron Corp., which recently announced its relocating its global headquarters to Houston, has officially started oil and natural gas production from its Anchor project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

The semi-submersible floating production unit features a high-pressure technology that operates at up to 20,000 psi with reservoir depths reaching 34,000 feet below sea level, Chevron reports, and has a capacity of 75,000 gross barrels of oil per day and 28 million gross cubic feet of natural gas per day.

“The Anchor project represents a breakthrough for the energy industry,” Nigel Hearne, executive vice president of Chevron Oil - Products & Gas, says in a news release. “Application of this industry-first deepwater technology allows us to unlock previously difficult-to-access resources and will enable similar deepwater high-pressure developments for the industry.”

The Anchor project is Chevron’s sixth currently operating facility in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Photo courtesy of Chevron

Located 140 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Green Canyon area and in water depths of approximately 5,000 feet, the Anchor is an all-electric facility with electric motors and electronic controls. The project utilizes waste heat and vapor recovery units and existing pipeline infrastructure for oil and natural gas transportation.

“This Anchor milestone demonstrates Chevron’s ability to safely deliver projects within budget in the Gulf of Mexico,” adds Bruce Niemeyer, president, Chevron Americas Exploration & Production. “The Anchor project provides affordable, reliable, lower carbon intensity oil and natural gas to help meet energy demand, while boosting economic activity for Gulf Coast communities.”

The Anchor project is Chevron’s sixth currently operating facility in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which is one of the lowest carbon intensity oil and gas basins in the world, per the release. By 2026, Chevron expects to be producing a combined total of 300,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day.

Chevron's subsidiary, Chevron U.S.A. Inc. is the project operator and holds a 62.86 percent working interest. TotalEnergies E&P USA, Inc., the co-owner, holds a 37.14 percent working interest. Chevron estimates that the total potentially recoverable resources from the Anchor field is up to 440 million barrels of oil equivalent.

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A View From HETI

Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental, said the company's Stratos DAC project is on track to begin capturing CO2 later this year. Photo via 1pointfive.com

Houston-based Occidental Petroleum is gearing up to start removing CO2 from the atmosphere at its $1.3 billion direct air capture (DAC) project in the Midland-Odessa area.

Vicki Hollub, president and CEO of Occidental, said during the company’s recent second-quarter earnings call that the Stratos project — being developed by carbon capture and sequestration subsidiary 1PointFive — is on track to begin capturing CO2 later this year.

“We are immensely proud of the achievements to date and the exceptional record of safety performance as we advance towards commercial startup,” Hollub said of Stratos.

Carbon dioxide captured by Stratos will be stored underground or be used for enhanced oil recovery.

Oxy says Stratos is the world’s largest DAC facility. It’s designed to pull 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air and either store it underground or use it for enhanced oil recovery. Enhanced oil recovery extracts oil from unproductive reservoirs.

Most of the carbon credits that’ll be generated by Stratos through 2030 have already been sold to organizations such as Airbus, AT&T, All Nippon Airways, Amazon, the Houston Astros, the Houston Texans, JPMorgan, Microsoft, Palo Alto Networks and TD Bank.

The infrastructure business of investment manager BlackRock has pumped $550 million into Stratos through a joint venture with 1PointFive.

As it gears up to kick off operations at Stratos, Occidental is also in talks with XRG, the energy investment arm of the United Arab Emirates-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., to form a joint venture for the development of a DAC facility in South Texas. Occidental has been awarded up to $650 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the South Texas DAC hub.

The South Texas project, to be located on the storied King Ranch, will be close to industrial facilities and energy infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. Initially, the roughly 165-square-mile site is expected to capture 500,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, with the potential to store up to 3 billion metric tons of CO2 per year.

“We believe that carbon capture and DAC, in particular, will be instrumental in shaping the future energy landscape,” Hollub said.

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