Hess Corp. has started oil and gas production at its Tubular Bells field in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, the company said Monday (Nov. 17). Hess estimates the field could hold as much as 120 million barrels of oil equivalent.
Tubular Bells, discovered in 2003, is located in 4,300 feet of water about 135 miles southeast of New Orleans.
New York-based Hess, which took over as operator in 2010, owns a 57 percent interest in the field. Chevron owns the remaining stake.
Hess said it would ramp up production from the field's three wells over coming weeks. Production is expected to hit 50,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the end of the year.
Tubular Bells is the first project to use a type of floating production platform known as a "spar" that was designed and built entirely in the U.S.
Many oil and gas platforms and other offshore structures are built in Asia where labor and material costs can be significantly cheaper. Hess said the Tubular Bells project was developed within budget, though it did not disclose the total cost.
Construction of the Tubular Bells spar platform took place at shipyards in Houma, La. and Ingleside, Texas. The construction work employed about 7,000 total.
Louisiana Sen. David Vitter was among politicians who welcomed the project's start and praised its U.S. construction.
"We in the Gulf states - and especially in Louisiana - are aware of how important domestic energy production is to our economy," Vitter said in a statement. "This is a major project and great news for the future of energy production in our country."