Major oil and gas company BP and its partners Shell, Chevron and ConocoPhillips have announced first oil production from the giant Clair Ridge offshore project in the West Shetlands region (United Kingdom). The project is the second development of the Clair field, which was discovered in 1977 and holds an estimated 7 Gboe of hydrocarbons.
The Clair Ridge project required capital investment in excess of £4.5bn (€5.1bn). Approximately 640 mbl of oil can be recovered and the production expected to ramp up shortly to a peak at plateau level of 120,000 bbl/d. It is the first offshore deployment of BP’s enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology, which increases the potential oil recovery from reservoirs by using water injection methods. At the Clair Ridge project, this is expected to result in up to 40 mbl recovered over the lifetime of its development. BP is the project operator with a 28.6% interest, while the remaining stakes are held by Shell (28%), ConocoPhillips (24%), and Chevron (19.4%).
The asset fits well into BP current strategy, which aims at delivering the 900,000 boe/d new production from new upstream major projects by 2021.