Shell Brings Silvertip Phase 3 Wells Online at Perdido

Shell Offshore has started production from Phase 3 of its Silvertip development in the US Gulf of Mexico, putting two new wells onstream at the Perdido spar.

The new producers draw from the Silvertip Frio reservoir and are tied into pre-existing subsea infrastructure at the host, with combined output expected to peak at as much as 6,000 barrels of oil equivalent each day.

Estimated recoverable resources for Phase 3 stand at 17 million barrels of oil equivalent, classified as 2P, and both the peak rate and the resource figure are quoted on a 100 percent gross basis.

Shell operates Silvertip Frio with a 40 percent interest, while Chevron holds the remaining 60 percent stake in the reservoir.

The Perdido spar sits in Alaminos Canyon, roughly 200 miles south of Galveston, Texas, in around 8,000 feet of water, one of the deepest operating environments on the US outer continental shelf.

Shell operates the Perdido Regional Host with a 35 percent working interest, with Chevron holding 37.5 percent, 3C Perdido Holdings 26.5 percent and BP the final 1 percent.

For engineers and procurement teams, a tieback phase like this is a useful case study in how brownfield infrastructure keeps earning its keep in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

Every additional well that flows through an existing spar extends the productive life of risers, topsides processing trains and export systems that were commissioned years ago, and it does so without the capital burden of a new host facility.

That model only works when subsea hardware added years apart still matches the original specifications, which sustains steady demand for gate valves, choke valves, tree caps and flowline connectors compatible with legacy systems.

A combined peak of 6,000 boed from two wells is modest by modern project standards, yet the 8,000-foot water column at Alaminos Canyon means every component between the mudline and the deck is engineered against severe external pressure differentials and demanding intervention logistics.

The 2P resource estimate also gives procurement planners a sense of how long the producing window around the host may stay open, and 17 million boe from a two-well phase points to a compact, efficient campaign rather than a long queue of follow-up drilling.

With Chevron holding 60 percent of the reservoir while Shell runs operations, alignment between operator and partners on maintenance strategy and spares holding is the kind of quiet detail that decides how smoothly late-life tiebacks perform in practice.