BP Announces Major Find In U.S. Gulf

HOUSTON, Sept. 8 (UPI) — BP in its renewed exploration in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico doubled the estimated reserve volume in its Mad Dog field, a drilling company said.

BP announced it drilled an appraisal well at an untested part of the Mad Dog field in about 4,500 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico.

BHP Billiton, the drilling company at Mad Dog, estimated the total amount of hydrocarbons to be up to 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent, twice the previous estimate.

“With these additional hydrocarbon resources north of the main field, Mad Dog has been firmly established as a giant field in BP’s Gulf of Mexico portfolio, rivaling Thunder Horse in size of resource,” Bob Dudley, BP group chief executive, said in a statement.

Thunder Horse, the largest deep-water production platform in the world, can produce around 250,000 barrels of oil and approximately 200 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

BP’s announcement follows similar statements from Chevron, which announced a discovery at a deep-water prospect in the Gulf of Mexico left idled after last year’s disastrous oil spill.

Washington placed a moratorium on oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico after BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig caught fire and sank in April 2010, killing 11 workers and causing one of the worst oil spills in the history of the industry.