Australian mining and energy group BHP Billiton has approved a US$2.2bn investment in the second phase of the BP-operated Mad Dog oil project in the Gulf of Mexico (United States). BHP owns 23.9% of the project, along with operator BP (60.5%) and Chevron (15.6%, through Union Oil Company of California).
BP discovered the Mad Dog field in 1998 and began production in 2005; the company currently produces up to 80,000 bbl/d of oil and 60 mcf (1.7 mcm/d) of gas from the existing platform. Continued appraisal drilling in the field during 2009 and 2011 doubled the resource estimate of the Mad Dog field to more than 4 Gboe, spurring the need for another platform at the field. In December 2016, BP sanctioned the second phase, despite the current low oil price environment.
Mad Dog Phase 2 will include a new floating production platform with the capacity to produce up to 140,000 gross bbl/d of crude oil from up to 14 production wells. Oil production is expected to begin in late 2021.