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Abu Dhabi: Global energy major, BP, plans to invest $8 billion (Dh29.36 billion) over the next five years in developing alternative energy technologies around the world that can help offset to a large extent the impact of rising global crude oil prices, a senior company executive told Gulf News.
Steve Peacock, BP's President for the Middle East & South Asia, said as the oil prices rise, the economies for developing alternative energy sources begin to look more and more attractive.
"I think, one of the things that higher price levels will do is they obviously make alternative forms of energy more cost competitive. Not that we ever believe that things like wind or solar power will ever replace oil and gas, but we do believe that they will more and more supplement oil and gas," Peacock said during a recent interview.
He said BP from its operations worldwide, produces about four million barrels of oil and gas equivalent a day. From the Middle East, the company's share of production is close to 230,000 barrels a day.
"It's a relatively small proportion today, but we are looking to expand that. We are looking to expand our presence in the region. I would like to see our production in the region growing to 500,000 barrels a day over the next couple of decades," said Peacock.
Turning to the company's future investments in the UAE and the Middle East region, he said: "Our investment intent in Abu Dhabi is to maintain our interest in the oil concessions for as long as the country will have us here. We intend to continue operating in and investing in Sharjah because that's critical national infrastructure."
Peacock added: "We are investing in Oman, what will be over $650 million over the next six years to develop what's called 'tight gas', gases in difficult reservoirs in Oman. In the rest of the Middle East region, it's really about acquiring new business, so, we would love to be doing business in Iraq as it potentially opens up, business with Kuwait we are investigating and business in Qatar we are actively looking at."
BP's assets in the UAE include an interest in the onshore exploration and production with Abu Dhabi Company for Onshore Operations (Adco), where they have about 10 per cent holding.
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