BP announced the start-up of Na Kika Phase 3, a project supporting BP’s strategy of growing high-margin production at four BP-operated hubs in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.

The first Na Kika Phase 3 well began oil production on February 19, with a second well expected to start up in the second quarter.

The project includes the drilling and completion of the two new wells, the addition of subsea infrastructure to tieback to the Na Kika platform and new equipment to allow increased production from an existing well at the site. It will utilize available production capacity at the Na Kika hub.

Na Kika Phase 3 is BP’s third new major upstream project to begin production so far in 2014, following the earlier start-ups of the Chirag Oil project in Azerbaijan and the Mars B project in the Gulf of Mexico. BP expects to start-up a further three upstream projects through the rest of 2014.

Tags: BP PLC