Page 12 - NorthAmOil Week 18 2022

NorthAmOil PROJECTS & COMPANIES NorthAmOil

BP details Gulf production increase plans

GULF OF MEXICO BP revealed this week it intends to double crude by Samsung Heavy Industries. It was shipped
output from its Thunder Horse project in the US 16,000 miles (25,750 km) from South Korea to
Gulf of Mexico. The super-major also said that it the Kiewit Offshore Services fabrication yard in
would inaugurate its latest production platform, Ingleside, Texas, in April 2021 for final prepara-
Argos, before the end of the year. tory work.
Currently, BP produces around 100,000 bar- Argos will be installed about 6 miles (10 km)
rels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) at Thunder from the original Mad Dog spar, which in turn
Horse, which is located about 150 miles (241 km) is located around 190 miles (306 km) south of
south-east of New Orleans. The company is now New Orleans. It will operate in 4,500 feet (1,372
The Argos platform forecasting it will be able to increase output from metres) of water and at its peak will be capa-
arrived in the US in the project to 200,000 boepd by the end of 2022. ble of producing up to 140,000 boepd from 14
April 2021. In September 2021, BP announced the wells through a subsea production system. With
start-up of the Thunder Horse South Expansion the addition of the submersible platform, BP’s
Phase 2. The company said a total of eight wells oil production in the Gulf will rise to 300,000
would be drilled to raise oil and gas production boepd.
at the field – one of the Gulf’s largest – to about BP’s senior vice president for the Gulf of
400,000 boepd by the mid-2020s. Mexico and Canada, Starlee Sykes, stated at
Meanwhile, BP is beginning preparations to the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in
start its fifth operated platform, Argos, which Houston this week that the company was looking
will be used to produce oil from its $9bn Mad at natural gas as a “key transition fuel” to move
Dog 2 project. Construction of the 60,000-ton away from crude and other fossil fuels. She added
(54,400-tonne) platform began in March 2018. that the company would continue to explore for
The floating production unit (FPU) was built oil, primarily close to current hubs.™

NEWS IN BRIEF

POLICY place in the fall of 2022 to secure delivery in delivery to refill the SPR, this replenishment
future years when prices are anticipated to be structure also will help encourage the
DoE announces long-term significantly lower than they are today, and production we need now to lower prices
will represent a first tranche of purchases to
this year by guaranteeing this demand in the
buyback plan ensuring replenish the SPR and with more planned future at a time when market participants
anticipate crude oil prices to be significantly
after these purchases are executed.
continued availability the largest emergency supply in the world, lower than they are today.
“The US Strategic Petroleum Reserve,
US DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY, May 05, 2022
of Strategic Petroleum is a valuable tool to protect the American RRC proposes rule changes
economy and consumers from supply
Reserve disruptions — whether caused by emergencies
at home or petrol-dictators weaponizing
The US Department of Energy (DoE) access to energy resources,” said US Secretary to help implement oversight
today announced it is initiating a long-term of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “As we are of injection and storage of
replenishment plan for America’s Strategic thoughtful and methodical in the decision to
Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to ensure that it drawdown from our emergency reserve, we carbon dioxide
will continue to deliver on its mission as must be similarly strategic in replenishing the
an available resource to alleviate domestic supply so that it stands ready to deliver on its The Railroad Commission today took a
and global crude oil supply disruptions. The mission to provide relief when needed most.” major step forward in its application process
buyback process will begin with a call for bids The Fall 2022 call for bids to purchase to gain primacy from the EPA for Class VI
to repurchase a third of the 180mn emergency 60mn barrels will specify the volume and type injection wells. The injection wells are used
barrels released as part of a coordinated action of crude oil that SPR will purchase. The future for underground storage of carbon dioxide
with our international partners to provide delivery window will be based on anticipated from energy production, power generation or
a wartime bridge supporting American market conditions factoring in when future industrial sources.
consumers and the global economy in oil prices and demand are expected to be RRC’s commissioners approved the
response to Vladimir Putin’s war of choice significantly lower, likely after FY 2023. In publishing of proposed amendments to the
against Ukraine. The call for bids will take addition to securing contracts for future agency’s carbon dioxide rules for public

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 18 05•May•2022