CHAPTER 1 



PAST AND PRESENT OCS PRODUCTION 



1.1 -- FIELDS AND YIELDS 



The first offshore oil well in the Gulf of Mexico was 

 completed in 1947 in the Ship Shoal area off the coast of 

 Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana (Louisiana Department of Conserva- 

 tion, 1952: 1,3). Information on the present number of pro- 

 ducing oil and gas reservoirs and wells on the Gulf of Mexico 

 OCS, by state, and by offshore area, along with the Maximum 



Efficient Rates (MER) 1 for reservoirs and the Maximum Production 



2 

 Rates (MPR) for wells as of January 16, 1976, appears in 



Table 1.1. The Louisiana OCS has 3,020 wells tapping its 



1,612 oil reservoirs and 1,773 gas wells tapping 1,167 gas 



reservoirs for a maximum production rate of 953,406 barrels of 



oil and 3,989,449 thousand cubic feet (MCF) of gas per day. The 



Texas OCS has a maximum production rate of 1,330 barrels of oil 



and 314,559 thousand cubic feet of gas per day from its nine 



oil wells (7 reservoirs) and 71 gas wells (32 reservoirs) 



(U.S. Department of Interior, 1976a). 



■'■MER is the highest daily rate of production that can be 

 sustained by a reservoir without jeopardizing the maximum 

 practicable ultimate recovery from that reservoir (Melancon, 

 1977). 



MPR is the maximum daily rate for completed wells in a reser- 

 voir. The rate is determined by the USGS through quarterly 

 tests of oil wells and semi-annual tests of gas wells. The 

 total MPR's of the wells within a reservoir may not exceed 

 the MER of that reservoir (Melancon, 1977). 



