BP Kicks Off Argos Platform Production in US Gulf of Mexico

BP has announced the successful start of oil production at its Argos offshore platform in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, the company’ first new production facility in the region to begin operations in more than a decade.

The new platform will significantly boost BP’s energy output and consolidate its position as one of the major producers in the deepwater U.S. Gulf.

With a production capacity of up to 140,000 barrels of oil per day, the semi-submersible platform is expected to increase BP’s gross operated production capacity in the Gulf of Mexico by an estimated 20%. The company plans to systematically ramp up production from Argos through 2023.

Argos is the fifth platform of BP in the Gulf of Mexico and the first new BP-operated production facility in the region since 2008.

“The start-up of Argos is a fantastic achievement that helps deliver our integrated energy strategy – investing in today’s energy system and, at the same time, investing in the energy transition,” said Bernard Looney, bp’s chief executive. “As BP’s most digital facility worldwide, applying our latest technologies, Argos will strengthen our key position in the Gulf of Mexico for years to come.”

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 to start up by the end of 2025 globally.

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. It operates in 4,500 feet of water about 190 miles south of New Orleans and will support 250 permanent jobs.

Argos is also BP’s most digitally advanced platform operating in the Gulf of Mexico, featuring the company’s proprietary LoSal® Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Dynamic Digital Twin technologies. It 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.

David Lawler, chairman and president BP America said Argos demonstrates the company’s continued commitment to investing in the US. “We’re one of the largest energy producers in the country and are adding more resilient hydrocarbons at a critical moment,” he said.

BP is the operator with 60.5% working interest, and co-owners include Woodside Energy (23.9%) and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (15.6%).

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