BP BP Plc

By Oliver Griffin

BP PLC (BP.LN) said Friday that it has achieved first oil production from the Clair Ridge project in the West of Shetland region in the U.K. North Sea.

The Clair Field was discovered in 1977. The development is the sixth new upstream project to be brought online by BP this year. It will target reserves of 640 million barrels of oil, with a peak production rate of 120,000 barrels of oil a day

Bernard Looney, the chief executive of the company's upstream business, said the Clair Ridge project is "a culmination of decades of persistence" as access to the available oil proved difficult.

BP is the operator of the Clair field where it holds a 28.6% interest. Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB.LN) has a 28% interest, while Chevron North Sea Ltd.--a subsidiary of Chevron Corp. (CVX)--holds a 19.4% interest.

ConocoPhillips (COP) currently holds a 24% interest in the Clair field. However in July BP agreed to buy a ConocoPhillips subsidiary which holds a 16.5% interest in the field. Once the deal completes, BP's interest will be 45.1% and ConocoPhillips will hold a 7.5% stake.

BP said Clair Ridge is the first offshore use of its LoSal technology, which has the potential to increase oil recovery by injecting water of a lower salinity into reservoirs. The company expects its technology to result in an additional 40 million barrels of oil being recovered in a cost-effective manner over the project's lifetime.

Write to Oliver Griffin at oliver.griffin@dowjones.com; @OliGGriffin

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 22, 2018 19:15 ET (00:15 GMT)

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