The Woodside-operated Shenzi North project has commenced production in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico.

Shenzi North is a two-well subsea tieback that takes advantage of the existing Shenzi infrastructure to increase production capacity of the asset.

The project, on which a final investment decision (FID) was taken in July 2021, achieved production ahead of targeted first oil in 2024.

Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill said the start-up of Shenzi North further demonstrated the value of Woodside’s US Gulf of Mexico assets, acquired as part of the merger with BHP’s petroleum business in 2022.

“First production from Shenzi North shows how we are leveraging existing infrastructure to increase production and provide attractive returns from our Gulf of Mexico business.

“Taking the project from FID to first oil in 26 months is a great achievement. I commend the project team on safely bringing this resource into production well ahead of schedule,” said O’Niell.

Woodside holds a 72 per cent interest in the Shenzi conventional oil and gas field as operator and Repsol holds the remaining 28 per cent interest.

The field is located approximately 195 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana in the Green Canyon protraction area.

Shenzi was discovered in 2002 and first production of oil and natural gas occurred in 2009.

The Shenzi platform produces both oil and gas with a production capacity of 100,000 barrel per day and 50 million standard cubic feet per day.

Crude oil and natural gas produced from the field is transported to connecting pipelines for onward sale to Gulf Coast customers.

The stand-alone tension leg platform is located approximately 195 kilometres off the coast of Louisiana (United States) in the Gulf of Mexico, and is installed in 1,310 metres of water.

The platform currently consists of 17 wells with two in the development phase.