LONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - BP said it was delayinga major oil project in the Gulf of Mexico as rising costs makecurrent development plans difficult to justify.
"The current development plan for Mad Dog Phase 2 is not asattractive as previously modeled, due largely to marketconditions and industry inflation," the company said in astatement.
The UK major, in cooperation with co-owners Union OilCompany of California, a wholly owned subsidiary of ChevronCorp., and BHP Billiton Petroleum , isnow evaluating how to develop the project.
"BP fully intends to develop the resources at Mad Dog Phase2 and is committed to moving forward with the right plan," itsaid. "It is too early to speculate when the details of thefinal plan will be approved by BP and its co-owners."
The Mad Dog oilfield, which could contain up to 4 billionbarrels of oil equivalent (boe), is one of BP's flagshipdevelopments in the Gulf of Mexico.