RPSEA: Ultradeepwater Program

Abstract

Abstract The Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America (RPSEA) is a non-profit (501-c-3) corporation which was competitively selected by the US Department of Energy (DOE) to administer a ten (10) year 375 million USD program of research, development, deployment and commercialization of safe, environmentally sensitive technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the United States as called for under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct). The focus of the subject paper is the Ultra-Deepwater (UDW) portion of the RPSEA program. The EPAct states the UDW “shall focus on the development and demonstration of individual exploration and production technologies as well as integrated systems technologies including new architectures for production in ultra-deepwater.†The goals of the UDW are to exploit the ultra-deepwater resource base and to convert currently identified (discovered) resources into economic recoverable (proven) reserves, while protecting the environment, thereby providing the U.S. consumer with secure and affordable petroleum supplies. These goals will be achieved by: • Increasing the production of ultra-deepwater oil and gas resources • Reducing the costs to find, develop, and produce such resources • Increasing the efficiency of exploitation of such resources • Increasing