BP Starts Production at Argos Platform in Gulf of Mexico

BP started oil production at its Argos offshore platform, contributing energy to Mexico at a crucial time and reinforcing its position as a leading deepwater producer in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The Argos platform has a gross production capacity of up to 140,000b/d and is BP's fifth platform in the Gulf of Mexico. It is also the first new BP-operated production facility in the region since 2008. Moreover, the semi-submersible platform will increase the company’s gross-operated production capacity in the Gulf of Mexico by approximately 20%. 

“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, CEO, BP. 

Argos forms the centerpiece of BP's Mad Dog Phase 2 project, which extends the lifespan of the super-giant oil field discovered in 1998. It is also one of the nine high-margin major projects BP aims to start up globally by the end of 2025. BP's Senior Vice President of Gulf of Mexico and Canada, Starlee Sykes, praised the team for delivering the project with an outstanding safety record, producing some of BP's highest value, lowest operational emissions barrels.

Ewan Drummond, Senior Vice President of Projects, Production and Operations, BP, added that Argos is essential to BP's strategy of increasing its Gulf of Mexico production to about 400,000b/d by the middle of the decade.

Argos is BP's most technologically advanced platform in the Gulf of Mexico, incorporating BP's LoSal Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Dynamic Digital Twin technologies. The platform has a waterflood injection capacity of over 140,000b of low-salinity water per day, enhancing oil recovery from the Mad Dog field. It also has a Dynamic Digital Twin, a BP patent-pending software that connects complex data from Argos to 3D digital models of those systems, allowing remote operators wearing Virtual Reality headsets to access data in real-time, improving decision-making, efficiency, and safety. BP operates the platform with a 60.5% working interest, while Woodside Energy and Union Oil Company of California own 23.9% and 15.6%, respectively.

BP is also involved in Mexico’s upstream sector: “In partnership with Equinor and Total, BP has two deepwater blocks (1 and 3) in the Southeast Saline Basin. BP is also a partner in the shallow water block 34 also in the Southeast Basin,” the company’s website reads.