The deepwater Gulf of Mexico stands as the most important domestic oil-supply area for the U.S., making 1.43 million barrels of oil equivalent each day. A new study of deepwater operating costs looks at production from 32 deepwater assets in the region, including eight spars, three tension-leg platforms and a semisubmersible production unit that were brought onstream during the past three years.

The report, released by Calgary-based consulting firm Ziff Energy Group, focused on fields in more than 1,000 feet of water. It evaluated 2006 operating costs for the assets and compared effectiveness of chemical and well-servicing programs, boat and helicopter strategies and production optimization efforts.

In an attempt to quantify the costs of downtime, the study also looked at the mean time between downtime incidents and the mean time to recover production.

In 2006, companies had to defer massive volumes of production due to issues with facilities, subsea wells, pipelines and weather. Although a portion of this downtime was planned, a startling $1.7 billion worth of production was deferred due to involuntary incidents.

The study has applications beyond the Gulf, because the U.S. deepwater province has the broadest range of operating systems and diversity of operators in the world. Many technologies and best practices are incubated in the Gulf of Mexico before they move into less mature offshore areas, the firm reports.

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