Energy giant BP has unveiled its biggest oil and gas discovery in a quarter of a century, marking a significant pivot away from its recent focus on renewable energy and back toward fossil fuels.
The UK-based company announced on Monday that it is conducting tests at a newly discovered site in deep waters off Brazil’s east coast. This find is expected to play a crucial role in BP's efforts to ramp up crude oil production.
“This is BP’s largest discovery in 25 years,” said Gordon Birrell, BP’s executive vice president for production and operations. He added that the company is now considering the development of a major production hub at the site.
Earlier this year, BP scaled back its investments in renewable energy, opting instead to increase spending by billions of dollars annually on its oil and gas operations. The shift aims to rebuild investor confidence after years of financial headwinds.
The latest discovery, located in the Bumerangue block of Brazil’s Santos Basin—around 250 miles (400 km) off the coast—revealed a substantial 500-metre column of oil and gas. BP described it as its most significant find since the Shah Deniz gas field in the Caspian Sea in 1999.
This year has already been fruitful for BP’s exploration teams, with other major discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico—referred to by the current US administration as the “Gulf of America”—as well as in Egypt.
“This is yet another milestone in what has been an outstanding year for our exploration team,” Birrell noted.
BP’s ambitions to reinvent itself as a “net zero” energy company have faced numerous setbacks. The firm reported a $5.7 billion (£4.29 billion) loss in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by a $25 billion writedown in 2022 after it exited its Russian energy ventures due to the Ukraine conflict.
Investor sentiment also wavered as BP funneled large sums into renewable projects, while competitors capitalized on surging oil and gas prices triggered by geopolitical tensions.
Following the announcement, BP’s shares saw a modest rise of just over 1% in London trading. Photo by Chabe01, Wikimedia commons.