once operational, gulf of mexico project will help meet growing energy needs

Chevron has financially approved and is preparing to develop a U.S. offshore play that could yield 75,000 barrels of crude per day—enough to fill the tanks of more than 132,000 compact cars.

Through our new project Ballymore, we have the potential to recover more than 150 million barrels of oil in Chevron’s first Norphlet reservoir development.

Ballymore has the potential to add significant volumes of domestic, lower carbon intensity production to global energy supply. 

The Gulf of Mexico has some of the lowest carbon intensity production within Chevron’s portfolio. It averages an intensity of 6 kg carbon equivalent per barrel of oil equivalent, a fraction of the global average.

Ballymore allows us to expand the reach of our existing Gulf of Mexico facilities. We do so using tiebacks, which connect new developments with existing facilities.

In this case, we’re producing our Ballymore output to an existing Chevron production facility called Blind Faith.

By doing so, we will be efficiently increasing production throughput while reducing cost and cycle time.  Efficient tiebacks can also help Chevron sustain our lower carbon intensity Gulf of Mexico operations.

The project is expected to cost about $1.6 billion. 

• We’re expecting to achieve first oil in 2025.
• The project will be in the Mississippi Canyon area in 6,600 feet of water, about 160 miles southeast of New Orleans.
• Chevron USA has a 60% interest in the project; co-owner TotalEnergies E&P USA, Inc. holds the remaining interest.

Offshore development is complex, and it took teamwork to bring the Ballymore project forward. 

“I have been really impressed with the ingenuity and engineering capability our team has demonstrated to maximize the efficiency of the project design,” said Neil Menzies, general manager of major capital projects. 

“The team has really optimized the use of our existing facilities, as well as the cost and footprint of the development, while effectively developing the reservoir.” 

Correction: an earlier version of this story incorrectly calculated the number of compact cars that could be filled with 75,000 barrels of crude.