BP has made the largest oil and natural gas discovery in 25 years, carrying out a successful drilling at a site off the coast of Brazil.
This discovery gave great acceleration to the energy giant, which refocuses on fossil fuels.
The Bomerangue field is located in the Santos Basin, about 400 km from Rio de Janeiro, and covers an area of more than 300 km², about five times the size of Manhattan.
Gordon Birrell, BP's head of oil production, said in a stock exchange statement on Monday that this "important discovery" is the company's biggest discovery in 25 years. BP shares gained 1.2 percent in early transactions.
According to a BP spokesperson, this discovery was the biggest discovery since the company's discovery of the giant Shah Sea field, which contained about 35 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Caspian Sea in 1999.
Boomerangue is thought to contain a mixture of gas, condensate and oil.
This discovery took place at a time when BP CEO Murray Auchincloss shifted his strategy to giving less emphasis on renewable energy sources by making more emphasis on oil and natural gas production.
BP stated that it is still too early to assess the size or quality of the reserves, but high levels of carbon dioxide have been detected, a factor that can make the extraction process difficult and increase processing costs.
The company has 100 percent of the license rights in the field as the sole bidder in the tender held in 2022. The terms seem commercially favorable: BP will pay only 5.9 percent of the profit to the Brazilian government after covering its costs.
After successful wells in Bumerangue, Trinidad, Egypt, Libya, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico, it was BP's 10th discovery this year. Azule, a joint venture established by BP with Italian oil giant Eni, also made discoveries in Namibia and Angola.
In February, the company retracted its previous commitment to limit exploration outside its existing basins and reduce fossil fuel production as part of the transition to clean energy.
Last year, BP produced oil and gas for just under 2.4 million barrels per day. The company aims to keep production between 2.3 million and 2.5 million barrels per day by 2030 and increase it further by 2035.