BP boosts production in massive Gulf oil field to fund renewables
BP has expanded production from one of the largest oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico, in large part to fund the British oil major’s ambitions to become a renewable energy leader.
The oil giant on Tuesday said it started production at its Thunder Horse south expansion project, which is expected to increase BP’s oil and gas output by an average of 25,000 barrels per day. The phase 2 project is part of BP’s plans to increase its Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production to about 400,000 barrels per day by the middle of the decade.
“This has been a pivotal year for our Gulf of Mexico business as we continue to start up new projects,” said Starlee Sykes, BP’s senior vice president of the Gulf of Mexico and Canada. “Bringing high-margin, resilient barrels online in basins we know best is central to BP’s strategy.”
BP is doubling down on the Gulf of Mexico, looking to extract low-cost, lowemission crude that will partially fund the company’s growing renewable energy business and help meet its 2050 net-zero emissions goal. The oil major has invested in solar and wind projects, and has promised to help the world get to net-zero emissions, meaning all the greenhouse gas emissions released by humans are offset or removed from the atmosphere.
BP has said its existing Gulf of Mexico fields can break even with crude prices as low as $30 a barrel, making it some of the lowest-cost oil in the world to produce. Offshore oil platforms also usually burn less natural gas than onshore shale wells, although oil spills remain a risk.
The company's Thunder Horse expansion consists of two subsea drill centers in
6,350 feet of water. They are connected to BP's Thunder Horse production and drilling platform by 10-inch dual flow lines. Eventually, eight wells are expected to be drilled.
The Thunder Horse oil field, discovered by BP in 1999, is one of the company’s largest discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico. BP’s Thunder Horse platform, 150 miles southeast of New Orleans, is the company’s largest and designed to extract up to 250,000 barrels of oil and 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.
BP has a 75 percent working interest in the project; Exxon Mobil holds 25 percent.
BP is one of the largest offshore oil and natural gas producers in the Gulf of Mexico, operating four production platforms: Thunder Horse, Atlantis, Mad Dog and Na Kika. Its fifth platform, Argos, is expected to come online in 2022.