bp has successfully started oil production at its Argos offshore platform, strengthening bp’s position as a leading producer in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico. Argos is bp’s most digitally advanced platform operating in the Gulf of Mexico, featuring bp’s proprietary LoSal Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Dynamic Digital Twin technologies.

Source: bp Press Office

With a gross production capacity of up to 140,000 barrels of oil per day, Argos is bp’s fifth platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the first new bp-operated production facility in the region since 2008.

The semi-submersible platform ultimately will increase bp’s gross operated production capacity in the Gulf of Mexico by an estimated 20%. bp expects to safely and systematically ramp up production from Argos through 2023.

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.

Bernard Looney, bp Chief Executive

Argos is bp’s most digitally advanced platform operating in the Gulf of Mexico, featuring bp’s proprietary LoSal® Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and Dynamic Digital Twin technologies.

Argos has a waterflood injection capacity of more than 140,000 barrels of low-salinity water per day to help increase oil recovery from the Mad Dog field.

The platform also has a Dynamic Digital Twin, a bp patent-pending software that links complex data from Argos to 3D digital models of those systems, allowing remote operators wearing Virtual Reality headsets to access data in real time to improve decision-making, efficiency and safety. 

Argos is the centerpiece of bp’s Mad Dog Phase 2 project, which extends the life of the super-giant oil field discovered in 1998. It is one of nine high-margin major projects that bp plans start up by the end of 2025 globally.

bp is a leading producer in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, operating five production platforms: Argos, Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika and Thunder Horse. bp also holds interests in four non-operated hubs: Great White, Mars, Olympus and Ursa.