BP PLC said it will move its US Lower 48 onshore business headquarters to Denver from Houston to be closer to its Rocky Mountain region operations. The new location is expected to open in first-quarter 2018.
Two thirds of the unit’s operated crude oil and natural gas production and proved reserves are in the Rockies. The company anticipates its new office will open with at least 200 employees, including Lower 48 Chief Executive Officer David Lawler and the rest of the executive leadership team, with more staff to be added later.
A number of employees from the company’s current head office in Houston will relocate to Denver, with others remaining in Houston to manage the company’s Texas operations.
“Houston will remain a large and important center for our business, and we have no plans to change that,” Lawler said. “The same is true for Oklahoma City, which will remain a key hub for managing our assets in the Midcontinent region.”
BP in 2015 split off its Lower 48 onshore operations as a separate business (OGJ Online, Mar. 4, 2014). In addition to Colorado, the unit’s position spans New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming, with a material resource base of 7.5 billion bbl across 6 million net acres. Its daily net production averages 300,000 boe/d.
BP said its Lower 48 unit is the largest operator in the Colorado side of the San Juan basin, where the company has interests in 1,300 wells. The firm in late 2015 struck a deal to acquire 480 wells spread across 33,000 gross acres on the New Mexico side of the basin from Devon Energy Corp. (OGJ Online, Dec. 18, 2015).
About 30% of the unit’s overall production comes from the San Juan basin, which contains one of the best coalbed methane reservoirs in the world. The company’s operations in the basin are based out of Durango, Colo., and Farmington, NM.
