HOUSTON -- The company behind the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill announced yesterday that it is ramping up a new offshore energy project there, signaling that it is moving back into active exploration and production in the Gulf and elsewhere to rebuild profitability.

Executives at BP PLC said the company has started initial operations at the Galapagos project, a deepwater development tapping three new fields in the Gulf. BP holds a 56 percent interest in Galapagos, partnering with three smaller exploration and production companies, including Noble Energy Inc. and Houston Energy LP.

The project is roughly 140 miles southeast of New Orleans.

Using subsea equipment, BP said, it is gradually ramping up production of hydrocarbons from wells lying more than 6,500 feet beneath the ocean surface. Production will flow to BP's Na Kika platform in the same vicinity, the company said.

Na Kika was initially designed to handle production of up to 130,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, but the company said it has since been modified to handle the extra flow from the new wells being tied back into it.

BP anticipates that about 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day will flow out of the three fields at Galapagos -- Isabela, Santiago and Santa Cruz -- once that project is brought fully online. In a release, the company said it expects to finish ramping up the operation toward the end of this month.

The company said it has plans to spend roughly $4 billion on new oil and gas investments in U.S. Gulf of Mexico waters over the next decade. BP is already the largest offshore leaseholder in the Gulf, with about 650 deepwater leases.

Galapagos, the first in a series of new Gulf of Mexico offshore wells that BP says it will enter into service since the 2010 spill, "reflects the potential we continue to see in this world-class basin, now and in the future," said BP's regional Gulf of Mexico operations president, James Dupree.

In the company's release, CEO Bob Dudley said BP expects six high-margin projects like Galapagos to come online throughout the world for the remainder of 2012. He said big oil finds like these will help steer BP toward greater profitability as it looks to recover from the multibillion-dollar financial hit it took from its liability over the Macondo well blowout.

Late last month, the company said it is looking to restart exploration activity in Libya. Also last month, the firm completed a production-sharing contract with the government of Trinidad and Tobago, where offshore energy exploration is under way.