BP has began pumping crude via a brand new $9bn offshore platform within the oil-rich US Gulf of Mexico because it slows its transition out of fossil fuels amid rising vitality safety fears.

The corporate mentioned on Thursday that it had began producing oil via the Argos deepwater platform, its greatest new undertaking within the area in additional than a decade, which is able to pumping 140,000 barrels a day of oil and fuel from fields below 1000’s of ft of water.

Bernard Looney, BP’s chief government, mentioned bringing Argos on-line confirmed that the corporate was “investing in right this moment’s vitality system”. It might strengthen the corporate’s place within the Gulf of Mexico, the place it’s the largest producer, “for years to return”, he added.

The sphere’s start-up comes at a pivotal time for BP after Looney in February scaled again bold plans to shift the oil supermajor out of fossil fuels.

Looney introduced then that the corporate would trim its oil and fuel output by 25 per cent by 2030, in contrast with a earlier goal of 40 per cent, saying that governments needed BP to proceed investing in fossil fuels. Traders had additionally questioned the earlier technique, arguing {that a} shift into renewable vitality would diminish returns.

US president Joe Biden has leaned on the home oil and fuel business to extend oil output after gasoline costs spiked to file highs final 12 months when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine sparked fears that world oil provide would fail to maintain up with rising demand.

Starlee Sykes, head of BP Gulf of Mexico enterprise, informed the Monetary Occasions in an interview that the corporate had responded to Biden’s name and deliberate to proceed exploration for brand spanking new oil and gasfields within the Gulf of Mexico.

The Argos platform will increase its manufacturing capability within the area to 400,000 b/d, about 20 per cent of the corporate’s whole output.

“The Gulf of Mexico has among the greatest barrels we’ve obtained and we wish to discover and develop extra,” Sykes mentioned.

BP additionally sees the potential to proceed increasing output within the area for many years to return, she added, regardless of a aim of reaching internet zero emissions by 2050.

“It’s massively prolific . . . there’s nonetheless a protracted, lengthy strategy to go within the Gulf,” mentioned Skyes.

The brand new Argos platform is the primary new platform the corporate has deployed within the area for the reason that Deepwater Horizon explosion in April 2010 that killed 11 folks and unleashed the worst offshore environmental catastrophe in US historical past.

It comes amid heightened issues that shortfalls in world oil provides might result in a contemporary spike in crude costs later this 12 months, a menace to a world economic system reeling from excessive inflation.

Such fears had been exacerbated when the Opec+ group of producers mentioned earlier this month that it will lower greater than 1mn b/d of output.