Oil major BP PLC (LON:BP.) has begun production at the Clair Ridge oil field off the west coast of the Shetland Islands in the North Sea.
The FTSE 100 firm is targeting an output of around 120,00 barrels per day, with the project designed to recover a total of 640mln barrels.
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BP carries a 28.6% stake in the Clair Ridge project, with fellow oil majors Royal Dutch Shell PLC (LON:RDSA) and Chevron Corp (NYSE:CVX) holding 28% and 43.4% respectively.
Chevron’s stake is divided into two entities, ConocoPhillips and Chevron North Sea, which respectively hold stakes of 24% and 19.4%.
Clair was first discovered in 1977 and is one of a number of large developments in the area West of Shetland, with BP’s project having constructed two bridge-linked platforms in addition to a new oil and gas pipeline connecting it to the onshore Sullom Voe terminal via the Clair export pipeline.
The project is BP’s sixth major start-up in 2018, which when combined with the seven it started in 2017 will boost its daily output to 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day by 2021.
The oiler was recently given new financial vigour in October after it reported that its third-quarter profits had more than doubled year-on-year to US$3.8bn from US$1.86bn.
In lunchtime trading Friday, BP shares were down 1% at 519.9p.