BP orders Nexans umbilicals for Mad Dog 2

Oil major BP has chosen cable manufacturer Nexans to supply umbilicals and accessories for its Mad Dog 2 project in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Nexans said on Thursday that the static and dynamic umbilicals and accessories for the Mad Dog 2 project would be supplied by the company’s Norwegian subsidiary, Nexans Norway.

The company added that the project was part of a five-year frame agreement between BP and Nexans for the worldwide supply of umbilical and direct electrical heating (DEH) cables.

Under the agreement, Nexans will deploy the umbilicals and accessories in water depths from approximately 1,280 meters to 2,160 meters to connect the field to the floating production unit (FPU).

The scope of work includes three different umbilical designs integrating hydraulic, data, and fiber optic services.

The electrical and fiber optic elements will be manufactured at Nexans Norway’s plant in Rognan, and the umbilicals will be developed, manufactured, and tested at the company’s specialized plant in Halden.

The Mad Dog 2 project is a deep-water oil and gas production development located in the Southern Green Canyon area of Gulf of Mexico, approximately 320 km south of New Orleans, Louisiana.

BP discovered the Mad Dog field in 1998 and began production there with its first platform in 2005. Continued appraisal drilling in the field during 2009 and 2011 doubled the resource estimate of the Mad Dog field to more than 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.

Mad Dog Phase 2 will include a new floating production platform with the capacity to produce up to 140,000 gross barrels of crude oil per day from up to 14 production wells. Oil production is expected to begin in late 2021.