Argos, bp’s fifth platform in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico (GoM) achieved startup, the company announced Thursday, to deliver more energy and strengthen its position as a leading producer there.
It is the first new bp-operated production facility in the region since 2008.
Argos has a gross production capacity of up to 140,000 barrels of oil per day.
bp said the semi-submersible platform will ultimately boost its gross operated production capacity in the GoM by some 20%. Debottlenecking of Argos is also on the cards, through 2023.
Operating in 4,500 feet of water about 190 miles south of New Orleans, Argos will 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.
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“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. 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,” said Bernard Looney, bp’s chief executive officer.
The supermajor said Argos is the centerpiece of its 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.
Argos is touted as bp’s most digitally advanced platform operating in the GoM, featuring its proprietary LoSal® Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Dynamic Digital Twin technologies. 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. bp said 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 serves as the operator with 60.5% working interest alongside Woodside Energy (23.9%) and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron U.S.A. Inc. (15.6%).
