Mars is a permanent offshore drilling and production tension-leg

oil platform An oil platform (also called an oil rig, offshore platform, oil production platform, etc.) is a large structure with facilities to extract and process petroleum and natural gas that lie in rock formations beneath the seabed. Many oil platforms w ...

(TLP) operating in Mississippi Canyon blocks 762, 763, 806, 807, 850 and 851 in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

and was approved by the MMS in December 1992 with production beginning on July 8, 1996. The leases were acquired by Shell in 1985 and 1988. The platform is a joint venture between

Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States–based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is among the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,000 ...

and BP, with Shell owning the majority share and operating the facility.Shell Oil Company
/ref> Mars is positioned in a water depth of 896 m (2940 ft) and is designed to produce of

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) and lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

and of

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

a day.

Development and production

In October 1993, Shell announced plans to develop Mars utilizing an in-house designed and engineered TLP. The TLP was installed three years later in May at a water depth of 2,940 feet, making it the deepest TLP at the time as measured from its base on the

seabed The seabed (also known as the seafloor, sea floor, ocean floor, and ocean bottom) is the bottom of the ocean. All floors of the ocean are known as seabeds. The structure of the seabed of the global ocean is governed by plate tectonics. Most of ...

to the top of its tower. The

Magnolia Tension-leg Platform Magnolia is an offshore oil drilling and production Extended Tension Leg Platform in the Gulf of Mexico. It was the world's deepest ETLP, reaching , beating the Marco Polo TLP by . In March 2018, Big Foot ETLP took over this claim in . The hull c ...

has since surpassed the record set by Mars. Ten of the TLP development wells were predrilled beginning in the fourth quarter of 1993 with the remaining wells drilled with a contract rig installed on the TLP after the facility was constructed and in position. The oil produced is transported 116 miles via an 18/24-inch diameter pipeline to the Clovelly, LA area, and the gas is transported 55 miles via a 14-inch pipeline to West Delta 143. Both pipelines were installed as part of the Mars development.

Hurricanes

In 2005, Mars was damaged when

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a powerful, devastating and historic tropical cyclone that caused 1,392 fatalities and damages estimated at $125 billion in late August 2005, particularly in the city of New Orleans and its surrounding area. ...

hit the Gulf of Mexico but returned to production ahead of schedule in May 2006 and was producing slightly above its pre-Katrina rates in July 2006. Among the first-ever accomplishments were, most notably, the lift of the 1,000 ton damaged rig substructure, the repairs to both of the Mars product export pipelines in 2,000 feet of water and the mooring of the Safe Scandinavia in 3,000 foot water depth. The Mars recovery project encompassed more than one million man-hours without a recordable injury. When

Hurricane Ida Hurricane Ida was a deadly and extremely destructive tropical cyclone in 2021 that became the second-most damaging and intense hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. state of Louisiana on record, behind Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In terms of m ...

hit in 2021, posts on social media circulated falsely claiming that the platform had broken loose.

References

External links

Discussion board with pictures of platform
{{Shell oil Energy infrastructure completed in 1996 Oil platforms off the United States Petroleum industry in the Gulf of Mexico Energy infrastructure in Louisiana Shell plc buildings and structures BP buildings and structures

Development and production

Hurricanes

See also

References

External links