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Released August 07, 2025 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by Paul Wiseman for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--This week, BP plc (London, England) announced the startup of the Southwest Extension of its Argos platform, located in the Mad Dog field. The extension is expected to add 20,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/D) of gross peak annualized average production to the platform, whose gross production capacity is listed as up to 140,000 barrels of oil per day according to BP.
Argos, at a water depth of 4,500 feet, began production in 2023, as the company's fifth operated platform in the Gulf of Mexico. TechnipFMC (London) is the contractor. The new extension adds three wells to the platform. It will also include a new drill center about five miles southwest of Argos, in the aforementioned Mad Dog field, discovered in 1998.
Mad Dog is believed to contain the largest ultimate technically recoverable resources of any reservoir in U.S. Federal waters, at 22.6 BBOE.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Project Database can click here to read the detailed project report.
IIR has been tracking Argos since 2019. The project's total investment value (TIV) is $150 million. With a 60.5% working interest in Argos, BP is the operator. Co-owners include Woodside Energy (Perth, Australia) (23.9%) and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron U.S.A. Incorporated (15.6%).
Also on the company's agenda is further investment in Kaskida, a 20,000-pound-per-square-inch (psi) (20K) find, which reached a final investment decision (FID) in July 2024. Also slated for 2029 startup, its production capacity will be 80,000 barrels per day.
Kaskida, along with Chevron's Anchor, are 20K formations that were discovered a decade or more ago (Kaskida in 2006, Anchor in 2014). Only in the last year or so have Chevron and BP developed technology capable of producing these zones. Previous technology was limited to 15,000 psi production. Chevron's Anchor project came online in August of 2024, after a FID determination in 2019.
Subscribers can click here for project reports related to Kaskida.
Kaskida will access the Paleogene, "an oil-rich geological area about 250 miles southwest of New Orleans," according to BP. In a 2020 American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) story, John Snedden, William Galloway, Robert Cunningham, Marcie Phillips, Ian Norton and Paul Weimer said the Paleogene--also known as the Wilcox deepwater play, "has the largest ultimate technically recoverable resources of any reservoir in U.S. Federal waters at 22.6 BBOE," quoting Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) statistics. The formation extends onshore into Mexico.
Despite new production now coming online and expected by yearend 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) sees this as only preventing a decline in the GOM region, not increasing it. In a June 6, 2025 analysis the agency reported, "We expect operators to start crude oil and natural gas production at 13 fields in the (GOM) during 2025 and 2026, without which (GOM) production would decline."
The EIA sees all combined new fields adding 85,000 BBL/d in 2025 and 308,000 BBL/d in 2026. It lists all new fields, including Whale, Ballymore and Dover in 2025, and Shenandoah and Leon/Castile in 2026. Argos and Kaskida, because they are not entirely new, are not included in this EIA list.
With the new 20K production technology, many are expecting GOM production to increase in the next few years as more of the higher-pressure fields come online.
And with the Trump administration seeking to reverse Biden-era cutbacks on leasing federal lands in the gulf and elsewhere, some analysts see hope for production growth in the future. But new projects in deepwater plays typically take at least five, and usually closer to ten years to bring to production.
The BOEM's next oil and gas lease sale is planned for December 10, 2025. Says the BEOM's website, "Lease Sale 262 will offer approximately 15,000 unleased blocks located 3 to 231 miles offshore across the Gulf's Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas. Covering roughly 80 million acres, these blocks are situated in water depths ranging from 9 feet to more than 11,100 feet (3 to 3,400 meters)." It will be the first of three under the 2024--2029 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
Argos, at a water depth of 4,500 feet, began production in 2023, as the company's fifth operated platform in the Gulf of Mexico. TechnipFMC (London) is the contractor. The new extension adds three wells to the platform. It will also include a new drill center about five miles southwest of Argos, in the aforementioned Mad Dog field, discovered in 1998.
Mad Dog is believed to contain the largest ultimate technically recoverable resources of any reservoir in U.S. Federal waters, at 22.6 BBOE.
Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Oil & Gas Production Project Database can click here to read the detailed project report.
IIR has been tracking Argos since 2019. The project's total investment value (TIV) is $150 million. With a 60.5% working interest in Argos, BP is the operator. Co-owners include Woodside Energy (Perth, Australia) (23.9%) and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron U.S.A. Incorporated (15.6%).
Also on the company's agenda is further investment in Kaskida, a 20,000-pound-per-square-inch (psi) (20K) find, which reached a final investment decision (FID) in July 2024. Also slated for 2029 startup, its production capacity will be 80,000 barrels per day.
Kaskida, along with Chevron's Anchor, are 20K formations that were discovered a decade or more ago (Kaskida in 2006, Anchor in 2014). Only in the last year or so have Chevron and BP developed technology capable of producing these zones. Previous technology was limited to 15,000 psi production. Chevron's Anchor project came online in August of 2024, after a FID determination in 2019.
Subscribers can click here for project reports related to Kaskida.
Kaskida will access the Paleogene, "an oil-rich geological area about 250 miles southwest of New Orleans," according to BP. In a 2020 American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) story, John Snedden, William Galloway, Robert Cunningham, Marcie Phillips, Ian Norton and Paul Weimer said the Paleogene--also known as the Wilcox deepwater play, "has the largest ultimate technically recoverable resources of any reservoir in U.S. Federal waters at 22.6 BBOE," quoting Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) statistics. The formation extends onshore into Mexico.
Despite new production now coming online and expected by yearend 2026, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) sees this as only preventing a decline in the GOM region, not increasing it. In a June 6, 2025 analysis the agency reported, "We expect operators to start crude oil and natural gas production at 13 fields in the (GOM) during 2025 and 2026, without which (GOM) production would decline."
The EIA sees all combined new fields adding 85,000 BBL/d in 2025 and 308,000 BBL/d in 2026. It lists all new fields, including Whale, Ballymore and Dover in 2025, and Shenandoah and Leon/Castile in 2026. Argos and Kaskida, because they are not entirely new, are not included in this EIA list.
With the new 20K production technology, many are expecting GOM production to increase in the next few years as more of the higher-pressure fields come online.
And with the Trump administration seeking to reverse Biden-era cutbacks on leasing federal lands in the gulf and elsewhere, some analysts see hope for production growth in the future. But new projects in deepwater plays typically take at least five, and usually closer to ten years to bring to production.
The BOEM's next oil and gas lease sale is planned for December 10, 2025. Says the BEOM's website, "Lease Sale 262 will offer approximately 15,000 unleased blocks located 3 to 231 miles offshore across the Gulf's Western, Central, and Eastern Planning Areas. Covering roughly 80 million acres, these blocks are situated in water depths ranging from 9 feet to more than 11,100 feet (3 to 3,400 meters)." It will be the first of three under the 2024--2029 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).
