With another successful appraisal well completed, BP plc has “firmly established” the Mad Dog Field as the third giant field in the producer’s Gulf of Mexico (GOM) portfolio, a company executive said Friday.

The well was completed in a previously untested southern segment of the field, the London-based producer said. The 826-5 well is in about 5,100 feet of water in Green Canyon Block 826 about 100 miles south of Grand Isle, LA.

According to BP, the well encountered about 280 net feet (85 meters) of hydrocarbons in the objective Miocene sands and discovered an oil column of more than 2,200 feet (670 meters). The test builds on a 2008 drilling test of BP’s A-7 well in the western part of the Mad Dog Field. That test encountered a hydrocarbon column of more than 2,500 feet and 275 feet of net pay.

“With these additional hydrocarbon resources in the west and south of the field, Mad Dog has been firmly established as the third giant field in BP’s Gulf of Mexico portfolio, joining Thunder Horse and Atlantis,” said BP’s Andy Inglis, who helms the company’s exploration and production business.

Thunder Horse is now the largest offshore platform, with capacity to produce 250,000 b/d of oil and 200 MMcf/d of gas.

“Due to the materiality of these recent finds, we are reviewing development options to increase production from Mad Dog either through debottlenecking the existing facility or by adding another production facility,” Inglis said.

Mad Dog was the second of four large offshore fields discovered by BP during the 1990s, and it ramped up production in early 2005 (see NGI, Jan. 24, 2005). As many as 150 drilling and production personnel operate the truss spar platform, which is designed to drill and produce from at least 12 wells simultaneously in the field (see NGI, Aug. 4, 2008). BP maintains a 60.5% working interest in Mad Dog. BHP Billiton has a near-24% stake, and Chevron Corp. owns more than 15% interest in the play.

The truss spar platform at the Mad Dog Field is designed to process 60,000 MMcf/d of gas and up to 100,000 b/d of oil. Oil and gas are transported to existing shelf and onshore interconnections via the Mardi Gras Transportation System.

BP is considered the largest producer in the GOM with net production of more than 40 million boe/d. It now has nine GOM projects: Atlantis Phase 2, Tubular Bells, Kodiak, Freedom, Kaskida, Isabela, Santa Cruz, Mad Dog tiebacks and Great White.

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