deepest water oil well ever drilled

2023-06-19

In the year 2010, an unprecedented milestone in oil drilling was achieved in the gulf of Mexico when the deepest oil well in the world was drilled at a staggering 35,050 feet (10,683 meters) in the Tiber field. This record-breaking endeavor cemented its place as the most profound well ever bored.

Approximately two hundred miles towards the south-west of the city of New Orleans, lies the Tiber field, submerged eight thousand feet below the liquid expanse of the ocean. This area was pinpointed for its geological richness in 2009; a year after which the commencement of drilling operations took place.

Transocean, a company infamous for its involvement in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion that resulted in 11 worker fatalities and earmarked the greatest oil spill in U.S. history, has drilled the well at hand.

The Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia holds the title of deepest well ever drilled, having burrowed an astounding 40,230 feet (12,262 meters) in the 1970s; this surpasses the depth of the Tiber well. But this feat was not accomplished to extract oil – instead, it was part of a scientific research project.

At depths far surpassing any other drilled oil well, the Tiber Well rests—the deepest offshore well in the globe. This extraordinary achievement required an exquisitely designed rig with a remarkable price tag of one billion dollars.

After two arduous years of drilling, the completion of the petroleum well was at last realized in 2012. Although it has yet to start yielding oil, it is anticipated that production will commence in 2016.

Predicted to have an impressive 3 billion barrels of oil, the Tiber field could take a full 30 years to produce fully. Assuming it continues to deliver at the anticipated rate of 100,000 barrels per day, that would mean several generations before the entire project is finished.

Lying 35,000 feet (10,668 meters) beneath the salty waves of the seabed, a pool of oil captivity awaits within the Lower Tertiary Wilcox Group.

Boiling hot, the oil inside the Tiber field greets researchers at an incredible temperature of four hundred degrees Fahrenheit (or two hundred and four Celsius). Thanks to its extreme depth, this deposit is able to muster enough heat for an impressive magnitude.

To access the Tiber well, engineers employed a practice known as horizontal drilling. This particular approach is used in order to locate and extract oil from deep beneath the earth’s surface.

A lofty platform, christened the Deepwater Horizon, could be spied two miles (3.2 kilometers) away from the shore as the well was drilled.

The infamous Deepwater Horizon platform, owned by Transocean and leased by British Petroleum, was the devastation-causing piece of machinery used to drill the hapless BP oil well in 2010.

On April 20th, 2010, a deadly explosion tore through the Deepwater Horizon rig, claiming the lives of 11 workers and unleashing a devastating flood of oil into the Gulf of Mexico that went on to become the gravest oil spill in American history. In total, this tragedy saw 4.9 million barrels released into its waters.

In 2011, the Deepwater Horizon site in the Gulf of Mexico was taken apart and redistributed, and a new rig known as the Discoverer Deep Seas ventured forward to drill the Tiber well.

Capable of descending to a depth of 12K feet (3.658 meters), Transocean’s Discoverer Deep Seas is a state-of-the art drill ship engineered for the ultimate oceanic exploration.

The Tiber field was the place of origin for the very first well that was ever drilled – the Tiber well. It is tucked away in Block 762 of the beautiful Gulf of Mexico.

ExxonMobil, the largest petroleum firm in existence, proudly owns a 25 percent share of the Tiber field.

The remaining stakeholders in the domain are Chevron at a quarter of the total, Eni with one fifth of the interest, and Statoil who takes up a third.