According to a press release, a company working for Chevron named McDermott International recently finished work on a project in the Gulf of Mexico. Although it's just the beginning of a plan for the region that the company is hoping to launch, the initiative, based in the Walker Ridge region, involved extensive work to develop gear and equipment. Offshore project managers need to have insurance coverage in place to accommodate long-standing, complicated operations like this.
The statement describes the various procedures that McDermott performed to set up in the Jack and St. Malo sites. These include underwater pump stations and special jumper structures, some of which reached down nearly 7,000 feet. The project involved the use of several support vessels and the Derrick Barge 50 (DB50), which enabled high-intensity work in deep waters.
Tony Duncan of McDermott's Subsea Division said in the statement that the DB50 was crucial to their activity and allowed them to draw from their strengths while using this vessel to their advantage.
"As the industry moves into deeper water, McDermott continues to tailor its subsea engineering expertise, fabrication facilities, and global fleet of specialized vessels to meet the evolving technical needs of our clients," he said.
Though this is a general step forward for Chevron's oil activities, the company has suffered some setbacks in other areas of production in the Gulf of Mexico. A recent accident involving one of its Gulf-focused pipelines in Louisiana killed one worker and left two others injured, according to the Wall Street Journal. Work on that particular pipeline was stopped while the pipe was investigated.