BP is continuing its efforts to reinforce its strategic plans to stay heavily involved in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, flagging up that it has added two more rigs to its GoM fleet, while also progressing with several of its high-profile development projects.
The UK major now has nine rigs – a company record – in the US Gulf, with the latest addition Seadrill’s West Auriga drillship under a long-term contract. The drillship, capable of operating in up to 3,658 m (12,000 ft) of water, is carrying out development drilling work at the operator’s Thunder Horse field.
The other is a reconstructed drilling rig on BP’s Mad Dog oil and gas production platform in Green Canyon Block 782. It replaces the original unit on the platform that was badly damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. With the new platform rig in place, the operator is back underway with development drilling on the field complex, while the operator also of course weighs up its options for developing the field’s second phase via a likely slimmed-down Spar facility (see DI, 1 August 2013, page 1). Of the latest phase, BP said only it was still “pursuing plans” for the second phase. Mad Dog lies in water depths ranging from 1,372-2,073 m (4,500-6,800 ft), with recoverable reserves put at up to 450 MM boe.
The company anticipates investing on average at least US $4 billion per year in the GoM for the next decade, with its plans revolving around its four major operated deepwater production hubs – Thunder Horse, Na Kika, Atlantis and Mad Dog – and three non-operated production hubs (Mars, Ursa and Great White), as well as on significant exploration and appraisal opportunities in the Paleogene and elsewhere.
It added that it is also advancing a pipeline of future development projects in the deepwater GoM, highlighting that in April it started up the Atlantis North expansion, the first of seven additional wells to be tied back to the existing Atlantis platform. At Na Kika another field expansion is planned, following the successful startup last year of the Galapagos development, a subsea tieback to the Na Kika production facility.
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