BP brings Thunder Horse South online

BP announced Jan. 24 it has started up its Thunder Horse South Expansion project in the some 6,000 feet of deep water in the Gulf of Mexico 11 months ahead of schedule and under budget. The project is expected to boost production at the facility by an estimated 50,000 gross barrels of oil equivalent per day, further increasing output at one of the largest oil fields in the GoM. “Thunder Horse South Expansion - along with our recent approval of the $9 billion Mad Dog Phase 2 platform - demonstrates that the U.S. Gulf of Mexico remains a key part of our global portfolio today and for many years to come,” said BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley. The project also marks the first of several major upstream start-ups expected before the end of 2017, according to Dudley, and a step toward BP’s goal of adding 800,000 barrels of new production by 2020. The Thunder Horse South Expansion project adds a new subsea production system roughly two miles south of the existing Thunder Horse platform. The system is a collection point for wells connected to the TH platform by two 11,000-foot flow-lines installed on the seabed in late 2016. BP operates two other production platforms in the deep waters of the GoM– Atlantis and Na Kika, and holds interests in four non-operated hubs. (Source: Marine Technology News 01/24/17) Gulf Coast Note: Seven years ago this coming April, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster occurred in the GoM from the company-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry.