The Gulf of Mexico offers a wealth of lessons learned on the development and production of deepwater fields with over 80 fields in operation. Many of the lessons on well and reservoir performance have been reviewed and compiled recently into a knowledge base for the Deepstar Consortium. The key performance metrics – initial well rate, recovery per well, recovery factor, drive mechanism, and recovery complexity – are reviewed in the context of their influence on the selection of field development facilities. A primary reservoir driver in facility selection is the projected total field well work, which leads to a comparison of drilling and completion costs for wet vs. dry tree solutions. Historically, wet tree solutions have been used in developments with less than 5 completions and dry tree solutions where greater than 10 completions were required. However, the Gulf of Mexico is in a transition from the development of soft, highly compressible turbidite reservoirs – in water depths less than 4,000 ft – to basin floor fans which are typically deeper, older, and already compressed. The reservoir drivers, past and present, and their influence on facility selection will be reviewed.