Dominion E&P Announces First Production
at Rigel / 17 Hands
NEW ORLEANS – Dominion Exploration and Production (E&P),
a wholly owned subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), has begun production from the
Rigel and Seventeen Hands fields, located about 120 miles southeast of New Orleans
in the deep waters of Mississippi Canyon Blocks 296 and 299, respectively. The
Rigel field is in 5,200 feet and the Seventeen Hands field is in 5,800 feet
of water.
"Rigel and Seventeen Hands are examples of Dominion’s
diverse offshore operations," said Duane Radtke, president and CEO of Dominion
E&P. "These fields will add to our increasing natural gas production
from the Gulf of Mexico."
Both fields are operated by Dominion and employ subsea tiebacks
to pre-existing infrastructure owned by Chevron.
"We are very appreciative of Chevron’s work in
repairing hurricane damage to the host platform, Viosca Knoll 900," said
Kevin Guilbeau, senior vice president and general manager of Dominion E&P’s
offshore business unit. "Now that superstructure is restored and the tiebacks
are complete, we are able to commence production from these highly porous and
permeable reservoirs."
The combined design rate for the two fields is 160 million
cubic feet of gas per day (mmcfd). Dominion operates both fields and owns 53
percent of Rigel and 38 percent of Seventeen Hands. Dominion’s partners
in Rigel are Mariner Energy and Newfield Exploration. Seventeen Hands partners
are Murphy Oil Corporation and Hydro Gulf of Mexico LLC.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy,
with an energy portfolio of about 28,100 megawatts of generation, about 6.3
trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves and 7,800 miles
of natural gas transmission pipeline. Dominion also operates the nation's largest
underground natural gas storage system with more than 950 billion cubic feet
of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in nine states. For more
information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.
