HOUSTON: BP PLC said on Wednesday it planned to expand investments in the Gulf of Mexico and Texas, where it has its two top US oil and gas production operations.

The increase comes as inflation costs hit the industry and as the White House calls on oil companies to expand oil supply to reduce fuel prices for consumers.

The London-based company plans to increase spending in its US onshore oil and gas business, mostly in Texas, by 41% to $2.4 billion in 2023 from $1.7 billion last year, it said in a presentation posted on its website.

BP also said it planned to raise its Gulf of Mexico investment to an average of $2.3 billion a year in 2023 to 2025 from $2 billion per annum in the past five years.

Despite that boost, BP reduced its offshore production plans in the Gulf to around 350,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in the mid-2020s from the 400,000 boed previously planned for the period.

The numbers are part of a document that BP calls its US Impact report, which gives the first breakdown of its US investment and production plans since 2019, though not a detailed one. The report, which anticipates some of the global investments BP is likely to announce in coming months, does not set out spending plans for other US businesses, such as refining and wind power generation.

BP operates four deepwater production platforms in the Gulf: Atlantis, Mad Dog, Na Kika and Thunder Horse. The $9 billion Mad Dog 2 project is expected to start production in 2023, the company said. Mad Dog 2 includes BP’s fifth US platform, Argos, the start of which has previously been delayed from 2022 to 2023.