Our lives depend on a steady flow of energy, including oil and gas. It keeps our homes warm, transport moving and industries producing almost everything we need, from food to phones to pharmaceuticals. Delivering that energy consistently and reliably isn’t as simple as turning on a tap.
As oil and gas is extracted, the amount that can be produced from a reservoir declines over time. Which means constant monitoring, maintenance and skilled management to keep production stronger for longer.
By focusing on the fundamentals – from safety to maintenance to the way technology is used in daily operations – we have boosted production and set new company records for performance in some areas.
'Production is central to bp’s performance. When we run our operations safely, well and bring new projects to life, we keep energy flowing. That’s what allows us to grow and deliver what matters for our customers and shareholders,' says Gordon Birrell, EVP of production & operations
Managing the base
At the heart of our oil and gas production is what’s known as base management – the work that keeps our reservoirs, wells and facilities running at their best. It’s how we protect today’s production, and tomorrow’s.
'Base management is like an engine. If one component isn’t working as well as it can, you won’t get the best performance. Only when everything works together do you unlock the full potential,' says bp’s senior vice president, production, Elkhan Mammadov.
This integrated approach at bp is achieved through the production team working closely with the teams that study the subsurface and design, drill and maintain the wells. This, plus targeted investment in technology over many years, has seen bp’s assets become some of the strongest performing in the sector.
Dynamic digital twins, AI and automation have helped teams with day-to-day work, and given them earlier visibility of potential issues, allowing engineers to more easily intervene before signals of potential issues turn into problems that could interrupt production.
Production successes
The impact can be seen across our portfolio where we’ve had recent production success.
- In Azerbaijan, plant reliability has stayed above 98% for the last five years, and we’ve had high operating efficiency. That’s stayed consistent, even with the addition of a new offshore platform – ACE – in 2024. We’ve also used new technology to unlock new resources and drill more productively.
- In the Gulf of America, the Atlantis platform reached its highest production levels twice since 2023, as a result of strong base management operation across plant, wells and the reservoir.
- In our North Sea operations in 2025, every asset in the region delivered solid results. North Sea production averaged around 117,000?barrels of oil equivalent a day, about 10,000?barrels a day higher than 2024. The region also achieved its highest operating efficiency and plant, well and export reliability in over six years.
- And teams in Trinidad have unlocked new production. They achieved the best operating efficiency for five years and brought two major projects online – Cypre and Mento.
Across bp, production in the first quarter of 2026 as well as in 2025 averaged 2.3 million barrels a day. We expect underlying production to be broadly flat this year compared to 2025, an improvement on our outlook given a year earlier. It’s part of our plan to deliver 2.3 – 2.5 million barrels a day by 2030.
In addition, over the last several years, our unit production costs have remained in the lowest cost range, at approximately $6 per barrel.
'One of our strengths is the diversity of our portfolio,' says Elkhan. 'With assets around the world, we are able to support energy supply and balance performance across our system.'
Sustaining production
Oil and gas fields naturally produce less over time. Managing existing production is about slowing that decline.
In 2025, managed base decline at our assets remained comfortably within our 3% to 5% guidance. That was lower than expected earlier in the year and it reflects consistent attention to the way our assets work and early intervention when needed.
'Managing our assets well allows us to keep production steady, requiring less new investment. It’s about getting more from the assets we already have,' says Elkhan.
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Source: BP
