The Atlantis oil field is the third largest oil field in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United S ...

. The field was discovered in 1998 and is located at the

Green Canyon Green Canyon is an area in the Gulf of Mexico that is rich in oil fields and under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. Among other oil fields Green Canyon consist of Atlantis (blocks 699, 700, 742, 743, and 744) operated b ...

blocks 699, 700, 742, 743, and 744 in United States federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico about from the coast of

Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a U.S. state, state in the Deep South and South Central United States, South Central regions of the United States. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 20th-smal ...

. The oil field lies in water depths ranging from . The subsea structure of Atlantis has long been the target of safety critics.

Reserves

The Atlantis oil field has estimated ultimate reserves of about . The supermajor BP owns a 56% interest in the field in conjunction with BHP Billiton Petroleum Deepwater which owns a 44% interest.

History

The oil field was discovered in 1998 by the '' Ocean America'' semi-submersible, mobile drilling rig operating in a water depth of . The discovery was later confirmed by wells drilled by ''GSF C.R. Luigs'' and ''

Glomar Explorer ''GSF Explorer'', formerly USNS ''Hughes Glomar Explorer'' (T-AG-193), was a deep-sea drillship platform built for Project Azorian, the secret 1974 effort by the United States Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division to recove ...

''. Production started in October 2007.

Production

The field is expected to produce about of oil and of gas. The Atlantis field has been developed with a

semi-submersible Semi-submersible may refer to a self-propelled vessel, such as: *Heavy-lift ship, which partially submerge to allow their cargo (another ship) to float into place for transport *Narco-submarine, some of which remained partially on the surface *Se ...

production platform, ''

Atlantis PQ ''Atlantis PQ'' is a BP and BHP joint venture semi-submersible oil platform on permanent location over the Green Canyon Atlantis Oil Field in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, south of New Orleans. The "PQ" identifies the platform as being a product ...

'', designed by

GVA Consultants GVA Consultants was a Swedish marine and offshore engineering company specialising in the design of offshore structures, and semi-submersible platforms. History The experience of GVA as a marine engineering company stretches back more than 25 year ...

and built by

Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co., Ltd ( ko, 대우조선해양; abbreviated DSME) is one of the "Big Three" shipbuilders of South Korea, along with Hyundai and Samsung. History On 21 February 2011, the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group (M ...

in South Korea. In addition to the semi-submersible platform, field development uses a network of wet-tree subsea wells. The subsea elements of the Atlantis field were designed and fabricated by PS Fabricators. It is one of the largest to undergo systems integration testing (SIT) on land, also at PS Fabricators SIT site. This includes positioning the components as they would be positioned subsea, pressure testing, pig testing, etc. The system itself is rigorously tested to ensure its safety subsea.

Safety practices

Food and Water Watch lawsuit

On 17 May 2010, consumer group

Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch is a Washington, D.C.-based non-governmental organization group with an office also in Los Angeles, California, which focuses on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water, and corporate overreach. Resulting ...

, with former BP contractor Kenneth Abbott, filed a complaint in the

United States district court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district c ...

, seeking to stop production on the platform ''

'' until safety documents are produced. The suit was dropped by the plaintiff and re-file naming BP as a defendant, as required once BP became involved. According to Food & Water Watch, BP failed to supplement its document production with new information regarding Atlantis's suspension the second quarter of 2012, which caused much of the company's $3.7 billion loss in profits that quarter.

US government scrutiny

The ''Deepwater Horizon'' drilling rig explosion has given new impetus to a number of Congressional Representatives to pressure the

Minerals Management Service The Minerals Management Service (MMS) was an agency of the United States Department of the Interior that managed the nation's natural gas, oil and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf (OCS). Due to perceived conflict of inte ...

(MMS) to investigate safety practices on BP's ''

'' offshore platform in the Atlantis Oil Field. A whistleblower report to the MMS in March 2009 stated, "over 85 percent of the Atlantis Project's Piping and Instrument drawings lacked final engineer-approval," as legally required. The report further stated, "the project be immediately shut down until those documents could be accounted for and independently verified." BP and other oil industry groups wrote letters objecting to a proposed MMS rule last year that would have required stricter safety measures. The MMS changed rules in April 2008 to exempt certain projects in the central Gulf region, allowing BP to operate in the Macondo Prospect without filing a blowout plan.

References

External links

*
BP ''Atlantis PQ'' diagram and images
at

FMC Technologies FMC Technologies, Inc. was a North American company that produced equipment for exploration and production of hydrocarbons. FMC Technologies was incorporated in 2000 when FMC Corporation divested its machinery businesses. It exists today as a pa ...

Atlantis - City On The Rise
- Article about the Atlantis Oil Field Project (Date: April 14, 2005) {{BHP Gulf of Mexico oil fields of the United States BHP BP oil and gas fields 2007 establishments in the United States