Oil and gas production giant BP has commenced operations at the PSVM project in offshore Angola, a trading update issued by the FTSE 100 company has disclosed.

The project, which is located 400km north west of Luanda, consists of four oil fields which were discovered in 2002-2004 and represents the second BP-operated development in Angola.

The company stated that production would come from three production wells in the area known as the "Plutao" field and would be expected to rise to approximately 70,000 barrels of oil per day. Over the coming year, the PSVM is expected to build towards plateau rates of 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

Bob Dudley, BP Group Chief Executive Officer, said: "PSVM is one of the largest subsea developments in the world and was one of BP's key project star-ups for 2012 as we grow higher-margin production. Over the coming decade, we expect Angola, where we have extensive interests from exploration through to production top be one of the main hubs delivering growth for BP."

PSVM produces oil through a converted hull, floating, production, storage and offloading vessel with 1.6m barrels of storage capacity.

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