Engineering company Wood has secured a multimillion-dollar engineering design project for Chevron’s Anchor deepwater development in the Gulf of Mexico.

The scope of the project included the preliminary, front end engineering and design (Pre-FEED), FEED and now entails the detailed design of Anchor, a wet tree development that will employ a semi-submersible floating production unit (semi-FPU). 

"This marks the industry’s first deepwater high-pressure development to achieve a final investment decision," Wood said Thursday.

The project will be led by Wood’s engineering teams in Houston, Texas, with the contract awarded under an existing 10-year master services agreement (MSA) with Chevron.

"Under the scope of work, Wood is delivering a unique, fully integrated design for the topsides and subsea system, incorporating risers, production flowlines, export pipelines, and flow assurance analysis," Wood said.

The Anchor discovery is in Block 807 of the Green Canyon Protraction Area, located approximately 225 km off the coast of Louisiana in more than 1,500 m of water. With an operating pressure of 20,000 psi, it’s one of the first ultrahigh-pressure projects in the world. 

The semi-FPU will have a production capacity of 75,000 b/d of oil and 28 MMcf/d of gas, with the potential for future expansion.