bp delivers first oil from Atlantis expansion project in the Gulf of Mexico
bp reported Dec. 11 that it has successfully delivered first oil from the Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion project in what it calls “the US Gulf of America.”
The project is expected to add 15,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe/d) gross peak annualized average production at the existing Atlantis platform.
Atlantis, one of bp’s longest-running platforms in the Gulf, has a gross production capacity of up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day.
The Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion adds two wells to an existing drill center, a subsea hub connecting multiple wells. The subsea tieback, which connects new wells to existing offshore production facilities through pipelines, extends the footprint of the Atlantis field discovered in 1998.
bp delivered the Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion project two months ahead of its original schedule by utilizing existing subsea inventory, drilling and completing wells more efficiently, and streamlining offshore execution planning. bp says that this is the fifth major startup that it has delivered ahead of schedule this year.
Gordon Birrell, bp’s executive vice president of production and operations, 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 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030.”
The Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion is the second in a series of new projects bp is planning in the US Gulf between now and the end of the decade that are expected to enable bp to boost its capacity to produce more than 400,000 boe/d from the US offshore region by 2030.
In August 2025, bp started up the Argos Southwest Extension project, a three-well subsea tieback that is adding 20,000 boe/d barrels a day of gross peak annualized average oil production to our Argos platform.
In 2027, bp says that it plans to deliver Atlantis Major Facility Expansion, which will further increase production from the Atlantis field using existing infrastructure.
Andy Krieger, bp’s senior vice president for the Gulf of America and Canada, said: “This expansion at Atlantis is further testament to the benefits of maximizing 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,” Krieger added.
In addition to the Atlantis Drill Center 1 expansion project, bp started up major projects this year in Trinidad and Tobago (2), the UK North Sea, Egypt, Mauritania and Senegal, as well as Argos Southwest Expansion in the US Gulf, all contributing to its plan to deliver 10 major project startups globally by 2027.