The journey begins with a helicopter flight 150 miles offshore to Vito, Shell's new oil and gas platform. A similar journey three years prior went to a drill ship, which was then drilling eight wells on the seabed in preparation for Vito's arrival. Now, Vito is in position, hooked up, and ready to start delivering energy.
The excitement is palpable, seeing Vito as a red and yellow gleaming island on top of a mile of water. The platform is a culmination of knowledge, decades of learning what is essential for deep-water operations. Its compact and efficient design reduces environmental footprint and emissions. Right now, engineers onboard are testing systems and ramping up production stage by stage until full capacity is reached.
Vito's upper decks, or topside, house the helideck and living facilities at one end, while the other end is dedicated to production. Fluid from the reservoir comes up through three heavy steel flowlines, then is filtered and separated into oil and gas before being pumped ashore. The hull is made up of four cylindrical legs on a pontoon 90 feet below the waterline, moored by lines on each corner. Vito is moored three miles from the wellheads, allowing the platform to move with the waves and reduce forces on the hull.
The three flowlines must have a gentle slope to prevent kinking as the platform moves. Subsea teams connect flowlines to Vito at nearly a mile deep, using ROVs to attach cables, pull up risers, and maneuver 300-ton steel pipes into position, locking them into a basket on the side of the pontoon.
Vito is now connected to one of the deepest commercial oil and gas deposits in the Gulf of Mexico, five miles below the seabed. This subsea-to-platform connection is a feat of engineering that relies on complex, remote-controlled operations and robust design.
Topside Processing and the Separation of Energy
Vito is a Floating Production Unit (FPU), containing seven miles of pipes. The fluid from the well arrives on the topside and is separated inside large vessels. Gas, oil, and water are divided, with gas going into compressors and oil and water separating out inside vessels.
The process can be visualized as a bottle of salad dressing after being shaken: gas at the top, oil in the middle, and heavier products and sediment at the bottom. The gas is compressed, oil is pumped ashore, and water and sediment are separated out.
Despite its compact design, Vito can deliver 100,000 barrels of oil a day (4.2 million gallons). The platform is also a floating community, with accommodations for about 60 people, working in two-week rotations. Heating and electricity are generated from gas from the wells, and water is filtered from the sea.
