BP's Atlantis field in U.S. Gulf set for December start

By Robert Campbell

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil major BP (BP.L) is on track to start its giant 200,000 barrels per day Atlantis oil field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico in December, a BP spokesman confirmed on Monday.

BHP Billiton (BLT.L) (BHP.AX), the minority partner in the field, announced that Atlantis, would begin commercial production in December in a news release. BP had previously limited itself to saying Atlantis would start towards the end of 2007.

"We said we were working towards starting at the end of the year and this is what we are achieving," said BP spokesman Nicola Montorsi, confirming the December start date.

BP has formally commissioned the topsides of the Atlantis platform and has produced test volumes of oil from the field, Montorsi said.

Atlantis will be the biggest oil producer in the Gulf of Mexico when it starts, although it will be passed by the larger Thunder Horse field when it starts at the end of 2008. In addition to pumping up to 200,000 bpd of oil, Atlantis will also produce up to 180 million cubic feet per day of natural gas.

Both Atlantis and Thunder Horse field have been plagued by delays. Thunder Horse, which was originally to begin production before Atlantis in 2005, has been delayed by hurricane damage to the platform and the discovery that the deep-sea conditions had damaged its subsea production manifolds.

BP owns a 56 percent stake in Atlantis and a 75 percent stake in Thunder Horse and operates both fields. BHP Billiton holds the remaining 44 percent interest in Atlantis, while ExxonMobil (XOM.N) owns the rest of Thunder Horse.