BP announced that it is launching a process to market its North Sea business for a potential sale. The decision forms part of BP’s ongoing portfolio review.
The is not the first time BP has pulled back from the North Sea. In 2020, the company sold several properties to Premier Oil for $625 million.
“The UK has been our home for more than 100 years and will continue to play an important role in our future. We’re proud of the jobs we create, the contribution we make to the UK economy, and the work we do to keep energy flowing every day,” said Meg O’Neill, BP’s CEO.
BP’s North Sea portfolio includes the Andrew, Clair, Clair Ridge, and Glen Lyon developments and the Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP).
The Andrew area includes the Andrew, Arundel, Cyrus, Farragon, and Kinnoull fields, all of which produce through the Andrew platform. BP has said the Andrew platform is approaching at the end of production and that the company is operating the facility under a late-life business model.
Clair field is the largest oil field on the UK Continental Shelf. The field, 75 km west of Shetland, was discovered in 1977, but BP said challenging reservoir characteristics and technological limits delayed extensive drilling until the mid-1990s. Production didn’t begin until 2005.
The promise of the Clair field, which was estimated to hold 7 billion bbl of oil in place, drove BP to develop it in phases. Clair Ridge is the second phase of that field’s development and delivered first oil in 2018. BP said Clair Ridge’s bridge-linked platforms are designed to recover an estimated 640 million bbl of oil, adding that it had been considering a third phase of development for the field.
The Glen Lyon floating production, storage, and offloading vessel serves the Schiehallion Area, which includes the Schiehallion, Loyal, and Alligin fields approximately 175 km west of the Shetland Islands. BP said production from the area was shut in between 2013 and 2017 during redevelopment of the hub.
BP says the ETAP is one of the largest and most commercially complex oil and gas developments in the North Sea, with multiple fields sharing a central processing facility (CPF). BP operates all the ETAP fields. Recently, the Seagull and Murlach developments were tied back to the ETAP CPF.
“The North Sea remains integral to the UK’s energy system,” O’Neill said. “However, as we focus our portfolio and direct capital to our highest-value opportunities, we believe our North Sea business will be better positioned as part of another company. It has world-class people, resilient assets, and a proud heritage, and it is precisely these qualities that can attract an owner ready to back its next chapter. We are seeking an outcome that recognizes that value.”