The Atlantis platform is operated by bp with a 56% working interest, with Woodside Energy holding the remaining 44%.
British oil and gas company bp has started production at the Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion project in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM), two months ahead of schedule.
The project is expected to add around 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) to the Atlantis platform at gross peak annualised average production.
Atlantis, located around 150 miles (241km) south of New Orleans in water depths of 7,074ft, is operated by bp with a 56% working interest, alongside Woodside Energy with the remaining 44%.
It has a gross production capacity of up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day.
The expansion marks the company’s seventh major project to start operations this year, and the fifth of seven major projects to begin operations earlier than planned.
BP production and operations executive vice-president Gordon Birrell said: “Atlantis Drill Center 1 caps off an excellent year of seven major project start-ups for bp.
“This project supports our plans to safely grow our upstream business, which includes increasing US production to around one million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030.
“This latest success demonstrates the dedication of our US project team and our teams around the world, who are delivering new barrels at pace and with lower production costs, in service of growing long-term value for shareholders.”
The expansion project adds two wells to current the drill centre, a subsea hub linking several wells.
The subsea tieback, which links new wells to existing offshore production facilities via pipelines, expands the footprint of the Atlantis field, which was discovered in 1998.
BP attributed the early delivery of the project to existing subsea inventory, improved drilling and well completion, and streamlined offshore execution planning.
The Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion is the company’s second project in a series of new developments being planned in the GoM from now to the end of the decade.
These projects are expected to help bp increase its production capacity to more than 400,000boepd from the US offshore region by the end of this decade.
Furthermore, the company is planning for the Atlantis Major Facility Expansion in 2027 to further boost production from the Atlantis field.
BP Gulf of America and Canada senior vice-president Andy Krieger said: “This expansion at Atlantis is further testament to the benefits of maximising production from our existing platforms in the Gulf of America, growing bp’s US offshore energy production safely and efficiently.
“We are committed to investing in America as we firmly believe this region will continue to play a critical role in delivering secure and reliable energy to the world today and tomorrow.”
Alongside the Atlantis expansion, bp has brought other major projects online this year in Trinidad and Tobago, the UK North Sea, Egypt, Mauritania and Senegal.
In August this year, bp also started up the Argos Southwest Extension project, a three-well subsea tieback that adds 20,000boepd to the Argos platform.
Last month, Seatrium received a contract from BP Exploration and Production for the engineering, procurement, construction and onshore commissioning of the Tiber floating production unit in the GoM.
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