Beacon Offshore’s Shenandoah FPS Reaches US Ahead of Deepwater Installation
February 28, 2025
The Shenandoah floating production system (FPS) has been transported to the Gulf of America ahead of wet tow and offshore installation at the Shenandoah deepwater field at Walker Ridge project site, developed by Texas-based exploration and production company Beacon Offshore Energy.
On December 13, 2024 the Shenandoah FPS sailed away from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries’ shipyard in Ulsan, South Korea, where it was built.
COSCO Shipping and Guangzhou Salvage Heavy Transport (CSGS) delivered the Beacon Offshore Energy’s Shenandoah FPS to Ingleside, Texas, on February 10, 2025.
The 26,050 metric ton FPS was transported to the Gulf of America onboard the 80,000mt dwt semi-submersible vessel Xin Yao Hua.
The Shenandoah FPS was scheduled to arrive to Kiewit Offshore Services’ fabrication yard in Ingleside for limited final preparations and regulatory inspections to be followed by wet tow and offshore installation at the Shenandoah Walker Ridge project site.
The Shenandoah FPS will be placed into service with a nameplate capacity of 120,000 bopd. Mooring pile installation has been completed with infield pipelay activities to be performed in the first quarter of 2025.
The 102-mile, 18-inch SYNC oil export pipeline installation and associated upgrades to the CHOPS GB 72 platform have been successfully completed, Beacon Offshore said earlier.
Rig operations are underway for the completion of the second of four Phase 1 producing wells, with rig flowback operations to be conducted in the first quarter of 2025, followed by completion operations on the final two Phase 1 producing wells.
First oil for Shenandoah remains on track for the second quarter of 2025.
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The deepwater Shenandoah field is located approximately 230 miles from New Orleans, with water depths ranging up to 5,500 ft.
Beacon Offshore and its partners have sanctioned the next phase of development at Shenandoah, known as Shenandoah Phase 2.
Operations envisioned as part of Shenandoah Phase 2 include the drilling and completion of two additional producing wells, expansion of the Shenandoah FPS throughput capacity to 140,000 bopd via debottlenecking activities by early 2026, and installation of a subsea booster pump to provide hydraulic support by reducing back pressure on the wells in the dual infield flowline and riser system.
Beacon Offshore estimates that the activities from Shenandoah Phase 2 to be conducted between 2025 and 2028 will add approximately 110 MMBOE of P50 resources.
In conjunction with these incremental activities and reflective of the maturation of the Shenandoah project, the Shenandoah working interest partners have secured an additional $150 million of aggregate debt commitments from various financial institutions via the exercise of an accordion feature in their respective Shenandoah project finance term loans bringing the aggregate debt commitments to the Shenandoah project to over $1.2 billion. Beacon Offshore is joined by HEQ Deepwater and Navitas Petroleum in the Shenandoah Phase 2 development.
Additionally, Beacon Offshore and its partners are advancing plans, including ordering of certain long lead equipment) to facilitate the development of the Shenandoah South discovery located in Walker Ridge 95 in water depths ranging from 5,800 to 6,000 feet.
The field’s proximity to the Shenandoah FPS will enable a cost-efficient subsea tieback development to be accomplished via a three-mile flowline and dedicated riser connection to the Shenandoah FPS. Shenandoah South is expected to include the drilling and completion of two wells with initial production from the first well expected to occur in the second quarter of 2028.
Beacon Offshore estimates a total of 74 MMBOE of P50 resources for Shenandoah South. The company is partnering with Houston Energy, HEQ Deepwater, and Navitas Petroleum in the Shenandoah South development which is planned for final investment decision by the second quarter of 2025.
