BP - No Thunder Horse Production For Another 2 Years - Reuters

The big Gulf of Mexico oil story they're NOT talking about on CNBC . . .

LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Oil giant BP Plc (BP.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it does not expect production from its Thunder Horse field in the Gulf of Mexico to begin before the middle of 2008 due to new technical glitches.

BP had originally scheduled startup for the end of 2005 and this latest slippage will make it harder for BP to hit production growth targets in the coming years.

The delay will also call BP's skills at overseeing complex projects into question at a time when its management of Alaskan oil fields and pipelines is the subject of intense scrutiny.

BP said in a statement that tests carried out over the past four months revealed metallurgical failure in components of the subsea system and it now "plans to retrieve and rebuild all the sea-bed production equipment" from Thunder Horse. BP also said "it was too early to estimate the additional costs involved in replacing the affected systems".

EDIT

http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?view=CN&storyID=2006-09-18T153831Z_01_L18839907_RTRIDST_0_ENERGY-BP-THUNDERHORSE-UPDATE-1.XML&rpc=66&type=qcna