Subsea7 has been awarded a contract to provide engineering, procurement, construction, and installation (EPCI) services for a water injection flowline, hull piping, and associated subsea infrastructure for Shell’s enhanced oil recovery project at the deepwater Vito platform in the Gulf of Mexico.
Project management and engineering work will start immediately from Subsea7’s Houston office, with offshore operations scheduled to begin in 2026.
Craig Broussard, Senior Vice President at Subsea7, expressed enthusiasm for joining the Vito waterflood project, highlighting the company’s ability to leverage enhanced recovery techniques to optimize existing reservoirs for lower-carbon oil and gas production.
The Vito field, discovered in July 2009, is located over 4,000 feet deep, about 75 miles south of Venice, Louisiana, and 150 miles southeast of New Orleans. Shell, holding a 63.11% stake, operates the field alongside Equinor, which owns 36.89%. The partners reached a final investment decision (FID) in April 2018, and first oil was produced in February 2023.
In August 2024, the FID was made for the waterflood project, designed to inject water into the reservoir to boost oil recovery. This initiative is expected to increase the recoverable resource by 60 million barrels of oil equivalent (boe), with water injection anticipated to commence in 2027.