BP Says Thunder Horse Platform Delayed Until Mid-2008

BP Plc, Europe’s second-largest oil company, said its Thunder Horse production platform in the Gulf of Mexico won’t start until at least the middle of 2008, more than two years behind schedule, because of repair delays.

Tests over four months “revealed metallurgical failure in components of the subsea system,” which will now be retrieved and rebuilt, London-based BP said in a statement today.

The start-up delay at Thunder Horse is the second in two months, and comes after a series of disasters at the company’s U.S. operations, including a 2005 Texas refinery explosion, oil spills in Alaska, and investigations into market manipulation in propane and oil trading.

The platform, designed to process 250,000 barrels of oil a day and 200 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, was damaged by Hurricane Dennis in July 2005, leaving it listing at a 20-degree angle. It still hasn’t started production.

Bloomberg