BP Expands Gulf Portfolio with Argos Southwest Extension Startup

Photo Credit: BP

HOUSTON | 11 September 2025 — BP has started up its Argos Southwest Extension project, a three-well subsea tieback to the Argos facility, marking the first of several offshore growth initiatives in the U.S. Gulf region through the end of the decade.

Argos came online in 2023 and has a nameplate gross production capacity of about 140,000 barrels of oil per day. The Southwest Extension adds three wells and a new drill center roughly five miles southwest of Argos, boosting gross peak annual average production by about 20,000 boe/d.

This project was completed approximately 25 months after the appraisal well in May 2023, delivered seven months ahead of schedule, thanks to concurrent workstreams and early procurement.

For BP, the extension is part of a broader U.S. Gulf strategy. In 2023, BP produced roughly 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (net) from the Gulf of Mexico. The company is aiming to raise that number further as it brings other growth projects online, such as the Atlantis Drill Center-1 expansion (starting ~2026), the Atlantis Major Facility expansion (~2027), and the Kaskida hub, expected in 2029.

In this mature basin, BP has highlighted not just raising output but extending the productive life of existing infrastructure, improving margins and bringing incremental capacity online efficiently. The Argos Southwest project demonstrates how mature offshore platforms can deliver growth without starting from scratch. As BP balances its offshore oil ambitions with growing global debate over carbon, such expansions may test whether legacy provinces can continue to underpin stable supply in a lower-carbon era.