Oil major BP has started oil production at its Argos offshore platform in the deepwater U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
With a gross production capacity of up to 140,000 barrels of oil per day, Argos is BP’s fifth platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the first new BP-operated production facility in the region since 2008.
The Samsung Heavy Industry-built semi-submersible platform will ultimately increase BP’s gross operated production capacity in the Gulf of Mexico by an estimated 20%.
BP expects to ramp up production from Argos through 2023. The oil major expects its production in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico to grow to about 400,000 boed net by the mid-2020s, and average 350,000 boed across the decade.
According to BP, Argos is the centerpiece of BP’s Mad Dog Phase 2 project, which extends the life of the super-giant oil field discovered in 1998. It is one of nine high-margin major projects that BP plans start up by the end of 2025 globally.
Operating in 4,500 feet of water about 190 miles south of New Orleans, Argos will, according to BP, support 250 permanent jobs.
Standing 27 stories tall, the platform has a deck the length and width of an American football field and weighs more than 60,000 tons, BP said.
The name Argos is a reference to Odysseus' loyal dog from Homer's "The Odyssey" and a nod to the Mad Dog spar located six miles northeast.
Ewan Drummond, senior vice president, projects, production and operations, said: “Projects like Argos don’t just happen. They take years of careful planning, execution excellence, and brilliant teamwork. Argos is key to our strategy of increasing our Gulf of Mexico production to around 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the middle of this decade.”
BP is the operator with 60.5% working interest. Co-owners include Woodside Energy (23.9%) and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (15.6%).
According to BP, Argos has a waterflood injection capacity of more than 140,000 barrels of low-salinity water per day to help increase oil recovery from the Mad Dog field. The platform also has a Dynamic Digital Twin, a BP patent-pending software that links complex data from Argos to 3D digital models of those systems, allowing remote operators wearing Virtual Reality headsets to access data in real-time to improve decision-making, efficiency, and safety.
BP is the operator with 60.5% working interest. Co-owners include Woodside Energy (23.9%) and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (15.6%).
BP operates five platforms in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico: Argos, Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika, and Thunder Horse. The company holds non-operated interest in Great White, Mars, Olympus, and Ursa hubs in the U.S. Gulf.