Shell’s Stones field in the US Gulf of Mexico lies in the deepest water of any oil and gas development in the world, having drawn first oil last September from a seafloor about 9500 feet (2895 metres) below the surface.
However, core engineering for crucial aspects of the Anglo-Dutch supermajor’s floating production, storage and offloading facility — only the second of its kind in the region — began in much humbler bodies of water.
Engineers
