FACTBOX-Biggest US Gulf of Mexico offshore drillers

HOUSTON, March 31 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) on Wednesday started up its new Perdido oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico, the world's deepest offshore drilling and production facility.

Here is a list of the Gulf of Mexico's biggest players and their projects:

*OIL MAJORS:

BP Plc (BP.L) Thunder Horse, the largest oil and gas platform in the world, 250,000 barrels of oil per day and 200 million cubic feet per day of natural gas. In September BP announced a "giant" oil find in a the potentially billion-plus barrel Tiber prospect.

Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) Perdido, 100,000 barrels of oil per day, 200 million cubic feet per day of gas, the first producing platform in the Lower Tertiary, a frontier area in the deepest waters of the Gulf and furthest from shore; Mars, 160,000 barrels of oil per day, 121 million cubic feet of gas.

Chevron Corp (CVX.N) Tahiti, 125,000 barrels a day of oil, 70 million cubic feet per day of gas; Blind Faith, 65,000 barrels a day of oil, 55 million cubic feet per day of gas.

*INDEPENDENTS:

Anadarko Petroleum Corp (APC.N) Independence Hub, 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day; Marco Polo, 120,000 barrels a day of oil, 300 million cubic feet of gas.

Apache Corp (APA.N) Geauxpher, 91 million cubic feet per day of gas; Ewing Banks 998, expected to begin producing mid-year 2010, test-flowed 4,250 barrels of oil and 5.4 million cubic feet of gas per day.

*FOREIGN-BASED:

Petrobras, Brazil (PETR4.SA) (PBR.N) Cascade and Chinook, production expected to begin in June or July to reach 80,000 barrels per day within three years. Will include the Gulf's first floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) facility to transport oil ashore using shuttle tankers.

Eni, Italy (ENI.MI) Devil's Tower, 60,000 barrels a day of oil, 110 million cubic feet per day of gas.

BHP Billiton, Australia (BLT.L) Neptune, 50,000 barrels a day of oil, 50 million cubic feet of gas. (Reporting by Kristen Hays, Editing by Rene Pastor)