BP makes its largest oil discovery in 25 years
BP has made its biggest oil discovery in a quarter of a century off Brazil’s Atlantic coast, in a big boost for the beleaguered oil giant mired in a battle to turn around years of underperformance.
The petrochemicals giant’s head of production and operations, Gordon Birrell, announced the “significant discovery” in Brazil’s Santos Basin to investors on Monday, branding it “another success in what has been an exceptional year for [its] exploration team”.
The energy firm didn’t elaborate on how much the discovery, which was made at the oil major’s deepwater offshore Bumerangue, was likely to boost production or when it would be online.
Instead, it said it would kickstart a laboratory phase to analyse the character of the fluids it discovered, providing it with “additional insight into the potential of the Bumerangue block”.
It added that the field is believed to contain a mix of oil, condensate and gas. But it also flagged it had detected carbon dioxide levels in the discovery, a sign that extraction could be more complicated than usual and increase the costs associated with drilling and processing.
BP’s oil finds
The find is BP’s 10th – and largest – of the year to date, and has the potential to be a major boost to the firm as it undergoes its high-profile turnaround plan focused on returning the London-listed giant to its fossil fuel roots.
Chief executive Murray Auchincloss unveiled an eagerly anticipated overhaul in February, in a bit to boost shareholder returns after years of lacklustre performance and pressure from shareholders.
BP had embraced the transition to net zero more than any other oil major, promising to reduce its oil and gas output by 40 per cent in a bid to become net zero by 2050.
But under its revamped strategy, under-fire boss Auchincloss said BP would pile an additional $10bn (£7.5bn) into oil and gas to boost production by 20 per cent.
Birrell added the discovery underscored “its commitment to growing [the group’s] upstream”.
“Brazil is an important country for BP, and our ambition is to explore the potential of establishing a material and advantaged production hub in the country,” he said.