I like that one of these is called Atlantis

When you are expanding production of the fossil fuel industry most responsible for putting South Louisiana under the ocean, that is an appropriate name.

The $1.3 billion Atlantis Phase 3 development is the latest example of the British oil company’s strategy of growing oil production through its existing facilities in the Gulf, he said.

BP is the operator of Atlantis and holds a 56 percent working interest, with BHP holding the remaining 44 percent. BHP is expected to make a final decision early this year on whether to proceed with the expansion.

The announcement comes amid a four-and-a-half-year offshore oil bust that has cost the Houma-Thibodaux area about 16,000 jobs. Over the past few months, several reports from economists and consultants have predicted an uptick in the Gulf this year, forecasts that hinge on how high oil prices rise above current levels of about $50 a barrel.

BP’s announcement comes a day after Danos, an oilfield service company based in Gray, said two new contracts in the Gulf prompted it to hire 150 workers.

BP’s actions come after recent the company’s recent breakthroughs in advanced seismic imaging and related technology that revealed an additional 400 million barrels of oil in place at the Atlantis field, officials said.

The same innovation helped the company find an additional 1 billion barrels oil at its nearby Thunder Horse field, officials said.

Long story short, BP has found 1.4 billion more barrels of oil in the Gulf and is moving it into production.  It's nice to know things are working out for them after everything that's happened. It's a good thing we didn't overly burden that company with the task of rebuilding the coast they have played such a prominent role in despoiling.  Otherwise they might not be around to profit from these discoveries today.

And then what would we do?  After all, as bad as this activity has been for the global environment generally and Louisiana in particular, the "job creation" more than makes up for any of those unhappy side effects. And now BP is bringing the good times back. Right?

The new projects are the latest examples of a trend in which offshore oil companies drill several deep-sea wells then transfer the oil to existing platforms then later onshore by pipeline. The so-called “tiebacks” have helped drive down the break-even cost of producing oil so companies can profit at lower oil prices but have stripped business from major employers in the Houma-Thibodaux area that build and service the platforms.

Atlantis Phase 3, which operates in 7,000 feet of water, will include the construction of a new subsea production system from eight new wells that will be tied into the current platform, the company said. Scheduled to begin producing oil next year, the project is expected to boost output by about 38,000 barrels a day at its peak. It will also access the field’s eastern reaches, where advanced imaging identified additional reserves.

Oh well, that's just capitalism, though.  Gotta get more and more efficient.  Ideally, BP would be able to churn through the wetlands and suck out as much oil as the atmosphere can choke on without employing anybody except maybe a few guys to polish the robots.  They're not there yet but they're trying.  And we're grateful to have them here doing it.