BP Starts Up Gulf Of Mexico Expansion Project Earlier Than Planned

BP said on Thursday that it had started up ahead of schedule its Thunder Horse Northwest Expansion project in deepwater Gulf of Mexico, adding 30,000 bpd to the Thunder Horse oil production at peak and taking the total field production to more than 200,000 bpd.

The project comes online four months ahead of the original start-up date in early 2019, and is completed 15 percent below budget, BP said, without quantifying its investment in the project.

The expansion project has added a new subsea manifold and two wells tied into existing flowlines two miles to the north of the Thunder Horse platform.

“We are focused on growing value and these projects in the Gulf are competitive with any opportunities we have worldwide. This is what we mean by growing advantaged oil,” Bernard Looney, BP’s Upstream chief executive, said.

“Over the past five years we’ve driven up production through safe and reliable operations and bringing on new deepwater projects in a more efficient and standardized way. All this hard work is now delivering results. Our Gulf of Mexico business is thriving,” Starlee Sykes, regional president of BP’s Gulf of Mexico and Canada business, said.

BP boosted its net average daily production in the Gulf of Mexico from below 200,000 boepd in 2013 to over 300,000 boepd now. BP’s production is expected to further increase with the addition of the Mad Dog Phase 2 platform in 2021 and other upcoming projects.

The U.S. Gulf of Mexico is making a comeback and its total production has been rising over the past year.

Total U.S. crude oil production in the Federal Gulf of Mexico increased slightly in 2017 to reach 1.65 million bpd, the highest annual level on record, the EIA said in April, adding that production is expected to continue growing this year and next, accounting for 16 percent of total U.S. crude oil production. According to the EIA, a total of 10 deepwater Gulf of Mexico field starts are expected in 2018 and 2019.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

News Source: Link