BP makes largest oil and gas discovery in 25 years offshore Brazil
The so-called pre-salt area in deep water offshore, believed to be a large reservoir of oil and gas, is BP's 10th discovery so far this year, following findings in Trinidad, Egypt, Brazil and others. BP has plans to grow its global oil and gas production to 2.3million to 2.5million barrels of oil equivalent a day by 2030. Its total production in 2024 was 2.4million barrels of oil equivalent and BP expects production to be lower in 2025.
BP is planning to establish a new big production hub offshore Brazil, and already holds 100 per cent participation in the Bumerangue block with Brazil's state-run company Pré-Sal Petróleo SA as the production sharing contract manager. Results from the rig-site analysis indicate elevated levels of carbon dioxide, BP said. It plans to start lab analysis to get more insight into the potential of the block.
Gordon Birrell, BP executive vice president for production and operations, said: 'We are excited to announce this significant discovery at Bumerangue, BP's largest in 25 years. 'This is another success in what has been an exceptional year so far for our exploration team, underscoring our commitment to growing our 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.'
The news will be welcomed by new BP chair Albert Manifold, whose appointment was lambasted by some investors . Manifold, the former chief executive of building materials firm CRH, will join the BP board in September and take over as chairman in October – despite having never held the position elsewhere. BP shares were up 1.6 per cent to 405p by mid-morning on Monday.
BP is set to report its second-quarter results on Tuesday. Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: 'All eyes will be on any changes to cash returns for shareholders after BP lowered its share buyback in April. 'The dividend will also be closely watched – it has a punchy yield of 6 per cent thanks to BP's sheer scale that makes it an attractive stock within the income investor community.
'Shares in BP are flat so far in 2025 but are down around 7 percent over the past year. 'It has sharply underperformed rival Shell, with that discrepancy contributing to the takeover speculation last month that Shell denied. 'BP remains the underdog with Shell the preferred name by analysts. Shell has a buy recommendation from the analysts whereas BP remains a hold.'
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