Louisiana
Louisiana serves as BP’s home base for coordinating and transporting personnel and supplies to offshore platforms and drilling rigs in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico
Fast facts
- BP’s logistics base in Port Fourchon runs 24 hours a day, providing the food, supplies and tools needed to keep BP’s Gulf of Mexico facilities running safely and efficiently.
- In any given month, about 2,500 people pass through the Houma heliport on their way to BP facilities.
- The new Argos floating production platform will produce up to 140,000 barrels of crude oil per day from as many as 14 production wells.
From Port Fourchon, supply boats carry equipment and material for BP’s four operated offshore platforms (Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika and Thunder Horse) and drilling rigs. Just a few miles northwest, in the city of Houma, BP maintains the Gulf of Mexico Aviation Logistics heliport. Every day, from sunrise to sunset, the BP-contracted team runs a helicopter fleet that moves people to and from their jobs.
With more than three decades of experience in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, BP’s next wave of growth is underpinned by several new major projects already underway: a $1.3 billion expansion at Atlantis field, a second major expansion at Thunder Horse field — expected to boost production at its largest platform by 50,000 barrels of oil a day — and a $9 billion Mad Dog 2 development expected to start in late 2021.
Beyond its four operated platforms, BP holds interests in four other Gulf of Mexico hubs that other companies operate: Mars, Olympus, Ursa and Great White.
After completing a $10.5 billion acquisition of BHP’s American shale assets, BP’s U.S. onshore oil and gas business, known as BPX Energy, took over operations in early 2019 of vast new premium positions. The deal represents BP’s largest purchase since buying ARCO in 1999, and BPX Energy expects to more than double its annual capital spending — to more than $2 billion a year — on this newly expanded portfolio in Texas and Louisiana.
Elsewhere in Louisiana, BP has a major lubricants facility in Port Allen — near the state capital of Baton Rouge — which serves as a regional manufacturing and distribution center for BP Lubricants USA. Workers at the facility blend, package and distribute Castrol motor oil and car care products for sale in the U.S. and for export to markets in the Caribbean, South America, Canada and Mexico.
BP’s Castrol business is America’s top motor oil brand for consumers who change their own oil, accounting for 23 out of every 100 gallons of consumer motor oil purchased in U.S. stores.
