FIRSTS

Production technology (on and offshore)

ONSHORE ACTIVE WELLS PASS:

100,000 in 1933 (after approx. 75 years)

1 mm in 1981 (after 48 years)

1.5 mm in 2008 (after 27 years)

MAX 1.8mm in 2016 (after 8 years)

FIRST PLATFORM IN THE SEA:

1938 (Pure Oil’s Creole platform erected 2.5 kms off Cameron, Louisiana)

FIRST SEMISUBMERSIBLE

1962 (Shell’s Blue Water-1 semisub drilled a well in the GOM in 91m of water)

OFFSHORE ACTIVE WELLS PASS:

1,000 in 1958 (after 33 years)

10,000 in 1974 (after 16 years)

40,000 in 2011 (after 38 years)

MAX 64,000 (approx.) in 2045

FIRST MARINE SUBSEA COMPLETION:

1960 Peru

1960 USA

FIRST FPSO:

1975 UK (the Argyll field in the North Sea)

FIRST OFFSHORE HORIZONTAL:

1991 USA

FIRST SUBSEA BOOSTER PUMP:

1994 (ENI’s Prezioso Field, Italy at a water depth of 50m)

FIRST SUBSEA SEPARATION UNIT:

2001 (Statoil’s Troll C, Norway at a water depth of 340m)

As collated by globalshift.co.uk

RECORDS

Deepest and longest

DEEPEST WATER DEPTH HYDROCARBON WELL:

2021 Angola, Ondjaba-1 in 3,628m of water (Lower Congo Basin)

2016 Uruguay, Raya-1 in 3,404m of water (Pelotas Basin)

2013 India, in 3,174m of water (Krishna-Godavari Basin)

DEEPEST WATER SUBSEA TREE:

2009 USA, in 2,934m (GOM, Tobago field)

DEEPEST WATER FLOATING PRODUCTION:

2016 USA, in 2,896m (GOM, Turritella FPSO, Stones field)

LONGEST OIL TIE BACK:

69.8 kms USA, in 175m of water (GOM, Penguin A-E)

DEEPEST WATER PRODUCTION UNIT:

2016 USA, in 2,896m of water (GOM, Stones field)

LONGEST GAS TIE BACK (OFFSHORE):

190 kms Australia, in 806m of water (NW Shelf, Gorgon Field, Chevron)

149 kms Israel, in 1,676m of water (Mediterranean, Tamar Field, Noble)

143 kms Norway, in 345m of water (Barents Sea, Snohvit Field, Statoil)

LONGEST HORIZONTAL WELL:

15,239m UAE (Upper Zakum, 2022)

15,000m Russia (Sakhalin, Chayvo, 2017)

10,828m USA (Alpine Field, Alaska North Slope)

DEEPEST VERTICAL WELL (OFFSHORE):

10,685m, USA, (Tiber Field, GOM, Deepwater Horizon, 2009)

LONGEST MANTLE CORE:

1,268m, Mid-Atlantic Ridge (serpentinized peridotite and gabbroic intrusions drilled by the JOIDES Resolution drillship, 2023)

DEEPEST VERTICAL WELL (ONSHORE):

12,262m USSR (Kola Borehole SG-3, 1970 to 1994)

DEEPEST HYDROCARBON WELL (ONSHORE):

10,910m China, (Shendi Take 1, Tarim Basin, 2025)

DEEPEST WATER DEPTH WELL:

8,023m, Japan Trench (research vessel Kaimei, 2021)

As collated by globalshift.co.uk