offshore platform finds new home following 375-mile journey

When Isaias Rodriguez watched Chevron’s offshore platform, called Anchor, sail away from Ingleside, Texas, it felt like he was saying goodbye to an old friend.

As Anchor’s topsides fabrication and integration manager, he spent years helping the project grow from a concept to a 25-story high, oil and natural gas producing giant.

“Watching it depart the shoreline was emotional and exciting at the same time because this project has been the shining star so far in my career,” Rodriguez said.

As a crowd of Anchor project team members watched, the platform began its approximately 375-mile journey to its permanent location, about 140 miles away from the Louisiana coast.

It arrived in early June and is now tethered in place by 12 mooring lines in approximately 5,000 feet of water.

Production is set to begin next year to help meet growing energy demand. When it does, Anchor is expected to produce for the next 30 years at a peak of up to 75,000 barrels of oil per day in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, which has some of the lowest carbon intensity producing assets in the world.

During the four years Rodriguez spent helping bring the Anchor project to fruition, he got married, welcomed a baby boy with his wife and learned they’re now expecting their second child.

Growing a family helped put the assignment into perspective.

“The most satisfying part of this project has been seeing everyone return home safely to their families,” he said. “That’s always been important to me, but when my son was born, my perspective in life changed and my personal relationship to safety changed.”

Jacob Gros, an Anchor offshore installation manager, was tasked with ensuring the platform reached its destination safely. Now that it has, he’ll help manage it throughout its expected 30-year lifecycle.

“We’ve done a lot of great planning,” he said. “Now it’s time to execute those plans. There’s no doubt in my mind that as we do that, we’ll continue to work incident-free and deliver the end goal, which is being a reliable long-term asset for Chevron and the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.”