BP unlocking more US oil & gas with go-ahead for $5 billion Gulf of America project

UK-based energy heavyweight BP has decided to move forward with its second production platform in the Gulf of America (the U.S. Gulf of Mexico) in less than two years to augment its upstream business by making a final investment decision (FID) for one of its eight to ten major projects expected to start up globally between 2028 and 2030.

By approving its seventh operated oil and gas production hub, the estimated $5 billion Tiber-Guadalupe project, BP aims to bring online around 10 billion barrels of discovered resources in place across its Gulf of America Paleogene assets. This will be the firm’s second new production platform in less than two years in the offshore region it describes as critical, underscoring the significance of the U.S. Gulf to its global strategy.

The 100% BP-owned project, which will feature a new floating production platform with the capacity to produce 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day, is named after rivers in Italy and Texas and includes six wells in the Tiber field and a two-well tie-back from the Guadalupe field. With the production anticipated to start in 2030, the Tiber and Guadalupe fields are estimated to contain recoverable resources of approximately 350 million barrels of oil equivalent from the initial phase.

While additional wells could be drilled in future phases, subject to further evaluation, the project is fully accommodated within BP’s financial framework, which outlines plans to invest around $10 billion to deliver the firm’s Gulf of America Paleogene projects, when the Kaskida project is taken into account alongside the latest FID. These two projects are seen as the centerpieces of the UK player’s new build projects in the deepwater Gulf of America.

Recently, construction began on Kaskida, which will be the company’s sixth platform in the region, representing the first step toward unlocking the Paleogene, an oil-rich geological area about 250 miles southwest of New Orleans. With a production capacity of 80,000 barrels per day, the project is expected to come on stream in 2029.

Together with the five existing operating platforms in the Gulf, the duo will help enable the energy giant to boost its capacity to produce over 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the U.S. offshore region by 2030. BP aims to increase its offshore and onshore production in the United States to more than 1 million barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2030.

Andy Krieger, BP’s Senior Vice President of Gulf of America and Canada, commented: “Our decision to move forward on the Tiber-Guadalupe project is a testament to our commitment to continue investing in the Gulf of America and expand our energy production from one of the premier basins in the world. Along with its sister project Kaskida, Tiber-Guadalupe will play a critical role in bp’s focus on delivering secure and reliable energy the world needs today and tomorrow.” 

The company claims to be leveraging existing platform and subsea equipment designs to drive cost efficiencies across the Tiber-Guadalupe production hub’s construction, commissioning, and operations. The project development costs are anticipated to be approximately $3 per barrel lower than the Kaskida project, including synergies from using over 85% of the latter’s design.

Gordon Birrell, BP’s Executive Vice President of Production and Operations, highlighted: “Tiber-Guadalupe represents a significant step forward in our efforts to unlock the potential of the Paleogene in the Gulf of America, building on our decades of experience in the region. Together with our Kaskida project in the Paleogene, we expect Tiber-Guadalupe will be another world-class development.”

Located in the Keathley Canyon area, about 300 miles southwest of New Orleans, the Tiber and Guadalupe fields will produce from reservoirs using technology that can safely manage pressures of up to 20,000 pounds per square inch (20K). BP discovered the Tiber field in 2009 and has since worked closely with the offshore industry to help develop the 20K technology to complete high-pressure wells.

The company, which produced around 341,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Gulf of America in 2024, operates five platforms in the region: Argos, Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika, and Thunder Horse. The firm also holds interests in four non-operated hubs: Great White, Mars, Olympus, and Ursa.

The Tiber-Guadalupe project follows the start-up of a major expansion project at the Argos platform, called Argos Southwest Extension. As the firm is planning two additional expansion projects at the Atlantis platform over the next two years, these three projects represent nearly a third of the ten major ones the energy giant is planning to bring online globally by the end of 2027.

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