BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd. (BPEOC), a unit of bp plc, started up a sixth major upstream oil and gas project in 2025 with production from Murlach oil field in the UK North Sea.
Murlach adds a peak net production of about 15,000 boe/d to the bp-operated Eastern Trough Area Project (ETAP) in the central North Sea, a hub that has been operating for 27 years.
Formerly known as Skua, the field was shut-in in 2004. bp acquired the field license after it was relinquished by Shell plc, and received government and regulatory approvals in 2023 for field redevelopment.
The field, which lies within UKCS Block 22/24h about 203 km from the Aberdeenshire coastline and 27 km from the UK/Norway median lineabout in water depth of about 93-95 m, is estimated to contain 20 million recoverable bbl of oil and 602 million cu m of gas, with an expected production life of around 11 years, according to bp.
In its April 2022 environmental statement detailing the project, BPEOC proposed at the time to develop Murlach field via a two production well subsea tie-backs to the Eastern ETAP platform by tying into infrastructure associated with Seagull and Heron fields.
The proposed development concept was summarized as:
- The drilling of two production wells tied back to a new manifold.
- The installation of:
• A 7-km gas lift flowline from the ETAP platform to the new Murlach manifold;
• A 100-m tie-in from the Murlach manifold to the repurposed Heron A production flowline;
• A 150-m tie-in from the repurposed Heron to Seagull wash water flowline system to the Murlach manifold;
• A 500-m umbilical connecting the existing Seagull umbilical to the Murlach
manifold; and
- Processing of the Murlach hydrocarbons at the ETAP platform
BPEOC operates the project with 80% interest.NEO Energy Central North Sea Ltd. holds the remaining 20%.
bp upstream oil, gas project ambitions
The six projects bp has delivered this year add about 150,000 boe/d combined peak net production, contributing to the operator's target to deliver an additional 250,000 boe/d combined peak net production by end-2027, at which time the company expects to have delivered a total of 10 major upstream projects.
In 2025, bp has been involved in the production start of six projects:
The company is advancing work on the Atlantis drill center 1 expansion (Gulf of Mexico), the Atlantis major facility expansion (Gulf of Mexico), Ginger (Trinidad), and Coconut (Trinidad).
