NorthAmOil: Industry-first technology in US Gulf of Mexico may open ultra-high pressure offshore fields

First oil and gas are now being produced from a field in the US Gulf of Mexico so deep that the equipment must withstand record ultra-high pressures.  

Chevron just announced, on August 12, a technological breakthrough, producing oil from the Anchor field, so deep it had previously been off-limits. It is a world first, and the Gulf of Mexico will be the testing ground for the new technology.

The US oil company’s $5.7bn project needs equipment that can withstand pressures as great as 20,000 pounds per square inch (psi) or 137,900 kilopascals. Technology had in recent years been capped to withstand a pressure of 15,000 psi.

Reservoir depths of Anchor reach 34,000 feet (10,363 metres) below sea level.