英国石油公司 (BP) 位于美国墨西哥湾 (GOM) 深水区的Argos海上平台已成功开始生产石油。调试延误导致该设施无法按原计划在 2022 年上线。它的总产能高达 14 万桶/天，是 BP 在墨西哥湾的第五个平台，也是自 2008 年以来 BP 在该地区运营的第一个新生产设施。该半潜式平台最终将提高 BP 在墨西哥湾的总运营产能。 GOM 预计增加 20%。BP 预计产量将在 2023 年之前增加。

“ Argos的启动是一项了不起的成就，有助于实现我们的综合能源战略——投资于当今的能源系统，同时投资于能源转型，”BP 首席执行官伯纳德·卢尼 (Bernard Looney) 表示。“Argos 是 BP 全球数字化程度最高的设施，应用我们的最新技术，将在未来几年加强我们在墨西哥湾的关键地位。”

该平台位于 Green Canyon 780 区块，是 BP 耗资 90 亿美元的 Mad Dog 二期项目的核心部分，该项目延长了 1998 年发现的超巨型油田的寿命。它是九个高利润主要油田之一运营商计划于 2025 年底在全球启动的项目。

Argos位于路易斯安那州新奥尔良以南约 190 英里，水深 4,500 英尺，高 27 层。该平台的甲板长度和宽度相当于一个美式足球场，重量超过6万吨。Argos这个名字是由项目团队和员工调查选择的，是对荷马《奥德赛》中奥德修斯忠诚的狗的参考，也是对位于东北 6 英里处的疯狗晶石的致敬。

“像Argos这样的项目不会凭空发生，”BP 项目、生产和运营高级副总裁伊万·德拉蒙德 (Ewan Drummond) 表示。“他们需要多年的精心规划、卓越的执行力和出色的团队合作。Argos是我们战略的关键，该战略旨在到本十年中期将墨西哥湾产量提高到每天 40 万桶石油当量左右。”

Argos是 BP 在 GOM 运营的最先进的数字化平台，采用 BP 专有的 LoSal 增强石油采收率和动态数字孪生技术。它拥有超过 140,000 B/D 低盐度水的注水能力，有助于提高 Mad Dog 油田的石油采收率。该平台还拥有动态数字孪生（Dynamic Digital Twin），这是一款正在申请 BP 专利的软件，可将平台中的复杂数据与这些系统的 3D 数字模型链接起来，从而允许佩戴虚拟现实耳机的远程操作员实时访问数据。

BP 拥有 Argos 60.5% 的工作权益。共同所有者包括伍德赛德能源公司 (Woodside Energy) (23.9%) 和雪佛龙 (Chevron) (15.6%)。

Mad Dog 油田于 1998 年发现，自 2005 年起通过 Mad Dog 生产晶石开始生产。2009 年和 2011 年持续的评估钻探使 Mad Dog 油田的资源估算翻了一番，达到超过 50 亿桶油当量，从而产生了对第二个平台的需求。

2010年代初，BP与合作伙伴对Argos原有设计进行了简化和标准化，使项目总体成本降低了约60%。于 2018 年 3 月在韩国三星重工造船厂开始建造。那里的平台建设投入了超过 1500 万小时的工作。

该平台在 Boskalis BOKA Vanguard重型运输船上经历了 2 个月、16,000 英里的旅程后，于 2021 年 4 月抵达德克萨斯州英格尔塞德的Kiewit Offshore Services 制造厂。经过最后的准备和监管检查后，Argos被拖曳至离岸 380 英里的井场，进行最后的连接和调试工作。

Oil production has successfully started at BP’s Argos offshore platform in the deepwater US Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Commissioning delays kept the facility from coming online in 2022 as originally planned. With a gross production capacity of up to 140,000 B/D, it is BP’s fifth platform in the GOM and the first new BP-operated production facility in the region since 2008. The semisubmersible platform ultimately will increase BP's gross operated production capacity in the GOM by an estimated 20%. BP expects production to ramp up through 2023.

“The startup of Argos is a fantastic achievement that helps deliver our integrated energy strategy—investing in today’s energy system and, at the same time, investing in the energy transition,” said BP Chief Executive Bernard Looney. “As BP's most digital facility worldwide, applying our latest technologies, Argos will strengthen our key position in the Gulf of Mexico for years to come.”

The platform, located in Green Canyon Block 780, is the centerpiece of BP’s $9-billion Mad Dog Phase 2 project, which extends the life of the super-giant oil field discovered in 1998. It is one of nine high-margin major projects that the operator plans to start up by the end of 2025 globally.

Operating in 4,500 ft of water about 190 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana, Argos stands 27 stories tall. The platform has a deck the length and width of an American football field and weighs more than 60,000 tons. The name Argos, chosen by the project team and an employee survey, is a reference to Odysseus’ loyal dog from Homer’s "The Odyssey" and a nod to the Mad Dog spar located 6 miles northeast.

“Projects like Argos don’t just happen,” said Ewan Drummond, senior vice president, projects, production, and operations for BP. “They take years of careful planning, execution excellence, and brilliant teamwork. Argos is key to our strategy of increasing our Gulf of Mexico production to around 400,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by the middle of this decade.”

Argos is BP’s most digitally advanced platform operating in the GOM, featuring BP’s proprietary LoSal Enhanced Oil Recovery and Dynamic Digital Twin technologies. It boasts waterflood injection capacity of more than 140,000 B/D of low-salinity water to help increase oil recovery from the Mad Dog field. The platform also has a Dynamic Digital Twin, a BP patent-pending software that links complex data from the platform to 3D digital models of those systems, allowing remote operators wearing virtual reality headsets to access data in real time.

BP operates Argos with a 60.5% working interest. Co-owners include Woodside Energy (23.9%) and Chevron (15.6%).

The Mad Dog field, discovered in 1998, has been in production since 2005 through the Mad Dog production spar. Continued appraisal drilling in 2009 and 2011 doubled the resource estimate of the Mad Dog field to more than 5 billion BOE, creating the need for a second platform.

In the early 2010s, BP and partners simplified and standardized the original Argos design, reducing the overall project cost by about 60%. Construction began in March 2018 at Samsung Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea. More than 15 million hours of work went into building the platform there.

The platform arrived at Kiewit Offshore Services fabrication yard in Ingleside, Texas, in April 2021 after taking a 2-month, 16,000-mile journey onboard the Boskalis BOKA Vanguard heavy transport vessel. After final preparations and regulatory inspections, Argos was towed 380 miles offshore to the wellsites for final hookup and commissioning work.