bp has taken a final investment decision on the Kaskida project in the US Gulf of Mexico (GOM). Kaskida will be bp’s sixth hub in the Gulf of Mexico, featuring a new floating production platform with the capacity to produce 80,000 barrels of crude oil per day from six wells in the first phase. Production is expected to start in 2029.

Developing Kaskida will unlock the potential of the Paleogene in the Gulf of Mexico for bp, building on our decades of experience in the region. Technology has and will continue to play a pivotal role in propelling Kaskida from discovery to production. Together with the other resources we have in the Paleogene, we expect it to prove to be a world-class development. Today is a critical step in realizing its potential.

—Gordon Birrell, bp’s executive vice president of production and operations

Owned 100% by bp, the Kaskida field has discovered recoverable resources currently estimated at around 275 million barrels of oil equivalent from the initial phase. Additional wells could be drilled in future phases, subject to further evaluation.

Located in the Keathley Canyon area about 250 miles southwest off the coast of New Orleans, the Kaskida project unlocks the potential future development of 10 billion barrels of discovered resources in place across the Kaskida and Tiber catchment areas.

bp plans to leverage existing platform and subsea equipment designs that can be replicated in future projects to drive cost efficiencies across Kaskida’s construction, commissioning and operations.

By employing an industry-led design solution, Kaskida will be simpler to construct and simpler to operate, enhancing safety and delivering greater value for bp.

—Andy Krieger, bp’s senior vice president, Gulf of Mexico and Canada

Kaskida will be bp’s first development in the Gulf of Mexico to produce from reservoirs that will require well equipment with a pressure rating of up to 20,000 pounds per square inch (20K) and/or accompanying high temperatures (high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) conditions).

Advancements in 20K drilling technology coupled with updated seismic imaging are enabling bp to develop safely Kaskida and to progress plans to develop other fields such as Tiber, which is expected to advance to a final investment decision next year.

bp discovered the Kaskida field in 2006 and has since worked closely with the offshore industry to help develop 20K rig technology necessary to complete high-pressure wells.

bp operates five platforms in the Gulf of Mexico: Argos, Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika and Thunder Horse. bp produced circa 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from the Gulf of Mexico in 2023.

HPHT. The US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), the lead federal agency charged with improving safety and ensuring environmental protection related to the offshore energy industry, primarily oil and natural gas, on the US Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), defines high pressure (HP) as an internal absolute pressure rating greater than 15,000 psi absolute at the wellhead and high temperature (HT) as a temperature rating greater than 350 ˚F.

HPHT regulations and guidance is necessary for drilling, completing and producing HPHT wells. BSEE consider HPHT to be non-conventional technology, and production from HPHT wells requires a high level of scrutiny during the plan approval process.

Shell’s Appomattox Platform (2019) was the first high-temperature (HT) project to produce in the GOM.

According to the BSEE, development and regulatory approval of subsea HPHT equipment is not as progressed as surface HPHT equipment and is the largest hurdle to producing from subsea HPHT wells.

Although conventional subsea oil and gas equipment can be used to discover reservoirs with HPHT properties, those wells cannot be produced with conventional subsea equipment.