Marathon Oil Corporation and its partners, announced today that the Neptune development in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico has begun production of oil and natural gas. Neptune is being developed with a tension leg platform installed in Green Canyon Block 613 at a water depth of 4,250 feet. The facility's design capacity is 50,000 barrels of oil and 50 million cubic feet of gas per day.
"We are pleased to have achieved this milestone with Neptune and look forward to further field development in the near future," said David E. Roberts, Jr., Marathon executive vice president of Upstream. "Production from Neptune will be a significant contributor toward our projected total company average annual production growth of seven percent between 2007 and 2012."
The facility had recently undergone remediation to strengthen components inside the hull's pontoons. This work was carried out with the engineering contractor that designed the hull.
Marathon holds a 30 percent interest in Neptune, along with BHP Billiton which holds a 35 percent interest and serves as operator, Woodside Petroleum Limited holds a 20 percent interest, and Maxus (U.S.) Exploration Company holds a 15 percent interest.
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