David Lawler, CEO of BPX Energy, BP’s onshore oil and gas business, told Houston Chronicle his company will spend $1.3 billion to build three additional facilities in Permian Basin similar to Grand Slam. Located near Orla in Reeves County, Grand Slam is a network of tanks, pipelines and other equipment for gathering, processing and transporting oil, gas and their byproducts that has helped reduce routine flaring. BPX said when it entered Permian four years ago it was flaring 16 percent of gas it produced; today, it flares less than half a percent.
On a recent visit to BPX operations near the Texas-New Mexico border, Lawler told the Chronicle that BP decided to focus oil and gas production in places such as Permian Basin and divest other global assets in a pivot toward clean energy. “We’ll grow somewhat here,” he said, “but in other parts of the world we’ll be dialing down production… We have thousands of wells that we can drill, and we do not need additional property to sustain our growth profile. We’re happy with the assets we have. We’ll continue to invest here.”
