The second platform will be moored about six miles to the southwest of the existing Mad Dog platform, which is situated in 4,500 feet of water about 190 miles south of New Orleans.
The existing platform has the capacity to produce up to 80,000 gross barrels of oil and 60 million gross cubic feet of natural gas per day.
BP plans to add about 800,000 net barrels of oil equivalent per day of new production globally from projects starting up between 2016 and 2020.
The Mad Dog field was discovered by BP in 1998 and production started with its first platform in 2005.
Continued appraisal drilling in the field during 2009 and 2011 doubled its resource estimate to over 4 billion barrels of oil equivalent.
The first phase of Mad Dog has been in production off Louisiana for over ten years. However, in 2009 BP discovered more oil in the southern section of the field.
First oil from phase two is anticipated in late 2021.
BP operates the project with 60.5% stake. Field partner BHP Billiton and Union Oil Company of California, an affiliate of Chevron USA, own 23.9% and 15.6% stakes respectively.
Field production started in 2005 from the first Mad Dog development, which comprised of a truss spar floating platform housing facilities for simultaneous production and drilling operations.
