Offshore Platforms

Offshore platforms are critical components of the offshore infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico, supporting drilling and production operations, and playing a key role in the overall development of offshore oil and natural gas reserves. Platforms are used to:

• Interconnect with the offshore pipeline grid;
• Provide an efficient means to perform pipeline maintenance;
• Locate compression, separation and production handling and other facilities;
• Conduct drilling operations during the initial development phase of an oil and natural gas property; and
• Process off-lease production

We have interests in six multi-purpose offshore platforms in the Gulf of Mexico that are specifically designed to be used as hubs and production handling and pipeline maintenance facilities. Through these facilities we are able to provide a variety of midstream services to increase deliverability for and attract new volumes into our offshore pipeline systems.

Our platforms generally earn revenues through demand and commodity charges. A demand charge is a fixed fee that is charged to a customer contracted to use our platform services regardless of the volume the customer delivers to the platform. A commodity charge is typically a fixed fee per Mcf of natural gas or barrel of crude oil multiplied by the volume delivered to the platform. Contracts for platform services often include both demand and commodity charges, but demand charges generally expire after a fixed period of time.

(1) Our 50% joint venture ownership interest in this platform is held indirectly through our equity method investment in Deepwater Gateway, LLC.