PHOTO: Chevron’s Big Foot platform heading to Gulf of Mexico

Chevron’s giant Big Foot tension leg platform (TLP) last week started its journey from a port in Ingleside, Texas to the Gulf of Mexico, following failed installation on the field back in 2015. 

The Chevron-operated Big Foot field is located approximately 360 kilometers south of New Orleans, Louisiana, in water depths of 1,600 meters.

According to last week’s social media update by Port Corpus Christi, the platform left the Kiewit Offshore terminal on Tuesday, January 30. Kiewit constructs offshore platforms at its 500-acre fabrication facility in Ingleside, Texas.

The port added last week that the TLP would head to the open waters of the Gulf of Mexico through Port Aransas.

Chevron sanctioned the $4 billion Big Foot project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in December 2010. The Big Foot field is estimated to contain total recoverable resources in excess of 200 million oil-equivalent barrels.

Constructed in South Korea, the TLP was finished in December 2012 and arrived at Corpus Christi, Texas in March 2013. Integration and onshore commissioning activities were completed at Kiewit’s yard in Ingleside in January 2015 and offshore installation of the tendons started that same month. The platform was towed offshore in March that year.

The production from the Big Foot project was supposed to start in late 2015. However, the installation of the platform on the field was interrupted in May 2015 due to the sinking of tendons which were supposed to connect the platform to the seabed. The work on the installation was suspended and the TLP then returned to Ingleside for more work. Production is now expected to start during 2018.

Offshore Energy Today has reached out to Chevron seeking details about the platform’s journey, its expected arrival time, and the progress of the Big Foot project. However, the company has yet to respond to our queries. 

Offshore Energy Today Staff