Offshore staff
LONDON -- Six wells are flowing through the Thunder Horse production, quarters, and drilling platform at a combined rate of 260,000 b/d of oil, making it the second largest producing field in North America, after Prudhoe Bay, said Andy Inglis, BP's chief executive of Exploration & Production, during BP's 2009 strategy presentation today. Inglis said they have more than enough wells to fill Thunder Horse to capacity which is 280,000 b/d of oil.
With Thunder Horse online, BP is the largest resource holder and producer in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The company also plans to bring on a second phase of Atlantis this year.
"Delivery of Thunder Horse has been technically challenging, but the technology developed and applied here will benefit the next wave of our developments in the deepwater GoM," Inglis said.
BP's GoM exploration program through 2015 targets three main areas:
•Expansion in the Miocene play fairway that has delivered Thunder Horse and Atlantis, and has a pipeline of development projects including Dorado, King South, Puma, Tubular Bells, Kodiak, and Freedom
•Continued exploration in the Paleogene, where the Kaskida discovery is located
•Exploration of a new deep gas play in the shallow water.
3/3/2009
