Executive Vice President of Production & Operations, British Petroleum
Search every verified Gordon Birrell interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Gordon Birrell, BP’s executive vice president of production and operations, has outlined a strategy of growing the company’s upstream oil and gas business while simultaneously reducing emissions. In a March 2025 capital markets update, he stated that the company’s strategy had been “fundamentally reset” to focus on “growing long-term shareholder value.” Birrell said BP aims to increase its oil and gas production to between 2.3 and 2.5 million barrels per day by 2030 while cutting emissions by 40% over the same period, describing the balance as “tricky” but something the company knows how to achieve. At the Baku Energy Week in June 2025, Birrell announced four new investments in Azerbaijan, including a compression and electrification platform, a block development, exploration in the Adua area, and the Shafagasaman gas field with Turkish Petroleum as a partner. He also noted a 240-megawatt solar plant being built in Jabrayil. Birrell described the world as being in an “era of energy addition” where demand is growing for all types of energy, and said BP has “way more opportunities around the world than we can fund,” allowing it to select the best projects. In Angola, he highlighted the Azul Energy joint venture’s production of over 200,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day and its ambition to reach 250,000 barrels per day, as well as community initiatives including schools, health training, and landmine clearance.
“We've now started up five including Argo Southwest Extension which started up on Monday. We've probably got one more this year and then four next year. So out of our ramp up, we've brought on roughly 125,000 barrels per day of production, which of course was in our plan full year. So we're on plan with the ramp up from...”
“We've had a very good run in MNC now for the first half of 2025 versus the first half of 2024, we're up about 50% in profitability across the two half years and the second quarter in M and C was the best on record since we started talking about M and C back in 2012.”
“We've dropped three rigs across the portfolio that are not competitive inside our capital frame. We have decided to shut down a program in Australia on green hydrogen. We've decided to shut down some programs in the US on blue hydrogen and CCS. So we just constantly challenge ourselves to drive to the highest quality i...”
“We're currently managing about 100,000 pipelines of data across BP. We see this is costing us money, costing us more than it should do, and it's actually preventing people in the team from being able to use AI in a consistent way across the company. We're partnering with Data Bricks and Palanteer to implement a new uni...”
“We're very happy with the value uplift from the Devon transaction. Devon had been a tremendous partner for many years. We worked well with them in that part of the lower 48, but it was time to simplify and do our own thing. So we're very pleased with the value uplift. We're very pleased with the transaction.”
“Earlier this year we announced our strategy reset which was really designed to meet the energy needs of the world. We announced that we're going to grow our upstream oil and gas production business to somewhere between 2.3 and 2.5 million barrels per day by 2030. At the same time we're going to continue to reduce our e...”
“We've invested over 45 billion dollars in the Azeri field and produced 4.5 billion barrels. More and more technology and innovation are key to what we are doing here, including the Azeri Central East platform which is the most digitized production facility in BP's global portfolio, controlled from onshore.”
“We have an ambition to reach the absolute technical limit of recovery in this field many decades from now. This requires immediate efficient drilling operations, medium-term investments like Shiraag water injection and ACG gas expansion, and long-term technologies such as water alternating gas injection and polymer inj...”
“Today we announced four very material investments: the Shadin compression electrified platform, the Carabach block development, exploration in the Adua area, and the Shafagasaman gas field with Turkish Petroleum joining as a partner.”
“We're building a 240 megawatt solar plant called Sunrise at Gabriel by Light Source BP, and electrifying the Sangashell Terminal to lower emissions while exporting more gas to European markets. It's a win-win situation for emissions and energy supply.”
“Natural gas will be required as a fuel in the world for many decades to come, and the Shafagasaman gas field is important to keep the southern corridor full for longer, exporting to Turkey and Europe amid evolving geopolitical and global energy trends.”
“The biggest challenge for the world is the desire for more energy as populations increase and people get wealthier, demanding more energy of all types: oil, gas, nuclear, renewables. We're in what I've heard called the era of energy addition where all types of energy are required more and more.”
“For BP specifically, we have way more opportunities around the world than we can fund. We are limited on capital and people, which is good because we can choose the very best projects to invest in. The projects in Azerbaijan can compete for that capital very well.”
“The challenges for BP are simply growing our upstream business whilst reducing emissions. It's a tricky balance but we know how to do that.”
“The desire for more energy as populations increase and it's more energy of all types. It's oil, it's gas, it's nuclear, it's renewable within the framework of energy.”
BP Q2 2025 Earnings Call --------- In this video, we'll cover the latest quarterly earnings results, key financial metrics, and business ...
Gordon Birrell, bp's Executive Vice President, unveils the next chapter in an exclusive POWER interview #bakuenergyweek ...
In Power with Rufat Hamzayev, BP's Executive Vice President Gordon Birrell outlines six major investments in Azerbaijan, from ...
Gordon Birrell, bp's Executive Vice President, unveils the next chapter in an exclusive POWER interview Saturday, 7 June at ...
We have fundamentally reset our strategy to grow long-term shareholder value. Hear some key points from our Capital Markets ...
Speaking at the Angola Oil & Gas conference today Gordon Birrell, EVP Production & Operations from bp shared that this event ...
It's clearer than ever that the world wants and needs secure, affordable and lower carbon energy. Achieving that takes balance.
Gordon Birrell, EVP productions and operations, opens day 3 of bp week. Watch highlights from his session which takes a closer look at the role of oil & gas in bp's strategy. www.bp.com/bpweek
Music used in video: Landras Dream by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license ...
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