“Drill, Baby, Drill” has come back to the Gulf of America.
Chevron and TotalEnergies have announced the beginning of oil and gas production at their $1.6 billion Ballymore project in the Gulf of America, capitalizing on the Trump administration’s aggressive push to expand domestic energy production less than 100 days into the president’s second term.
The deepwater project, located approximately 160 miles southeast of New Orleans in the Gulf of America, consists of three wells with the capacity to produce up to 75,000 barrels of oil per day and 50 million cubic feet of gas daily. Chevron holds a 60% operating interest in the venture, with TotalEnergies owning the remaining 40%.
“Ballymore is interesting in that it’s a tie-back to an existing facility, which has allowed us to bring production to market more quickly,” said Bruce Niemeyer, president of Americas exploration and production for Chevron, in an interview.
Rather than constructing a new production platform, the wells transport oil and gas back to Chevron’s existing Blind Faith floating production unit, a strategy that aligns with the company’s goal of cutting up to $3 billion in costs across its business while simultaneously increasing Gulf production.
TotalEnergies highlighted the project’s efficiency in a statement: “At plateau, Ballymore will represent close to 30,000 boe/d net of cash-accretive production for TotalEnergies. The project utilizes existing infrastructure as well as standardized equipment to ensure lower development costs and lower emission intensity.”
The project launch comes just days after President Trump signed a memorandum to streamline energy permitting processes across federal agencies.
“The Presidential Memorandum signed today calls on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), in consultation with the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) and relevant permitting agencies, to issue a plan for modernizing the technology used for Federal environmental review and permitting processes for infrastructure projects,” the White House announced last week.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright celebrated the administration’s approach on social media: “Common sense is BACK under President Trump! He is unleashing American energy dominance by removing the red tape and Biden-era mandates.”
Ballymore represents Chevron’s first project in the Norphlet geological formation of the Gulf of America, an area where the oil and gas industry has historically had fewer discoveries. The field contains an estimated 150 million barrels of oil equivalent in potentially recoverable resources.
The company, which owns 370 leases in the Gulf of America, aims to boost its production in the region by 50% to reach 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2026. Chevron also expects to participate in upcoming lease sales under the Trump administration.
This launch follows Chevron’s August start-up of the Anchor project, another Gulf of America development featuring breakthrough technology for operating in deepwater pressures of up to 20,000 pounds per square inch.