BP Share News (BP.)

(Sharecast News) - BP is launching its first oil production from the offshore Clair Ridge project in the West of Shetland, more than 40 years after oil was first discovered in the area.The FTSE 100 oil giant is targetting 640m of barrels of oil reserves and a peak production of 120,000 barrels a day..Requiring capital investment in excess of £4.5bn, two new, bridge-linked platforms and oil and gas export pipelines have been constructed as part of the Clair Ridge project, which is designed for 40 years of production.Bernard Looney, BP chief executive upstream, said: "The start-up of Clair Ridge is a culmination of decades of persistence. Clair was the first discovery we made in the West of Shetland area in 1977. But trying to access and produce its seven billion barrels proved very difficult. We had to leverage our technology and ingenuity to successfully bring on the first phase of this development in 2005.Looney said it was "a major milestone" for BP's upstream business and the company's "continued commitment" to the North Sea region.In addition to the platforms, the Clair Ridge project also included new pipeline infrastructure with the installation of a 5.5-kilometre, 22-inch oil export pipeline, said BP.Furthermore the start of production of Clair Ridge follows the start-up earlier in 2018 of five other Upstream major projects: Atoll Phase One, offshore Egypt, Shah Deniz 2 gas development in Azerbaijan, TAAS expansion project in Russia, Western Flank B offshore Western Australia and Thunderhorse Northwest Expansion in the Gulf of Mexico.