A breakthrough in oil production technology, which producers claim can safely extract oil from ultra-high pressure fields, could unlock up to 5 billion barrels of previously inaccessible crude, according to analysts. On Monday, Chevron announced that it had successfully extracted oil from a field operating at pressures of 20,000 pounds per square inch, which is 33% higher than any previous well. The $5.7 billion Anchor project, which utilizes specialized equipment from NOV and Dril-Quip, as well as drillships from Transocean, marks this achievement.

Chevron, the second-largest oil company in the U.S., began pumping from the first Anchor well on Sunday, with a second well already drilled and nearly ready to start production, according to Bruce Niemeyer, the head of oil exploration and production for the Americas.

This development comes in the wake of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Macondo prospect disaster, where a blowout killed 11 workers and caused extensive environmental damage. Transocean, the operator of the ill-fated Deepwater Horizon, and BP, the owner of the Macondo project, are both involved in these new high-pressure well developments.

The industry is now using newly designed drillships and equipment built to handle pressures 33% greater than those encountered during the Macondo incident. Mfon Usoro, a principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie focusing on Gulf of Mexico operations, noted that the industry has made significant advances to safely deliver oil with this new technology. She added that Chevron’s Anchor project, along with similar initiatives by Beacon Offshore Energy and BP, is expected to produce a combined 300,000 barrels of new oil and make 2 billion barrels of previously unreachable U.S. oil accessible.

Usoro also highlighted that these ultra-high pressure fields will play a significant role in boosting production in the Gulf of Mexico, which has been below its 2019 peak of 2 million barrels per day. The additional oil could help the region return to its record output levels. BP is also developing its own high-pressure technology to tap into 10 billion barrels of known oil reserves, starting with its Kaskida project, which was discovered in 2006 but shelved due to the lack of suitable technology.

According to Aditya Ravi, a Rystad Energy analyst, similar high-pressure, high-temperature oil fields that could benefit from this 20k technology are located off the coasts of Brazil, Angola, and Nigeria. The Gulf of Mexico will serve as the testing ground for this new equipment. Ravi estimates that globally, more than 5 billion barrels of known oil and gas resources could benefit from this technology, equivalent to about 50 days of current global production.