Subsea 7 has booked its first work with new client Freeport-McMoRan for two deepwater projects in the US Gulf of Mexico.

Offshore construction vessel Seven Seas will be deployed on two jobs for Freeport-McMoRan at the Holstein Deep and KOQV fields in the fourth quarter of next year, where it will carry out installation of flexible pipelines and umbilicals on behalf of Freeport. Engineering for both jobs, which have a contract value in excess of US $50 million, will be carried out at Subsea 7’s offices in Houston.

In the Gulf of Mexico Freeport-McMoRan Oil and Gas has identified up to 6.6 Bboe total resource potential and 171 MMboe of proved reserves.

While the company’s deepwater Lucius development is nearing first oil in the second half of this year, at the company’s Holstein spar platform a rig has been activated and started drilling after a 2013 refurbishment and workover programme. From Holstein the company expects to drill up to seven sidetrack wells over the next two years while another five subsea tiebacks are expected to enhance production at the spar, including Holstein Deep, located 6.4 km west of the Holstein platform and thought to have 141.5 MMboe of net resources, after two previous delineation wells encountered approximately 152.4 m (500 ft) of net oil pay.

Another Holstein analogue prospect called Copper, south-east of Holstein, in 1,341 m (4,400 ft) of water, is regarded as another tieback opportunity.

Offshore