British Petroleum (BP) will complete seven projects in 2017, the highest number in the company's history, Group Chief Executive Robert Dudley said Tuesday.
Some of the projects include natural gas production in Egypt and Oman, two major oil projects in the North Sea, as well as in India, Dudley said, speaking at the IHS CERAWeek 2017 energy conference in Houston.
'India has a lot of gas resources on its east coast. Projects in India will be competitive,' he noted.
The chief executive said the company would put 88 million man-hours into work around the world this year, from 80 million man-hours last year.
Dudley is regarded as one of the first executives in the oil industry to use the infamous term 'lower for longer' in April 2015, referring to plummeting oil prices, when he said 'I do think the industry needs to prepare for lower for longer.'
He reformed the phrase on Tuesday with a slight but significant addition, and said 'lower for longer, but not forever.'
The executive said BP had to sell $75 billion of its assets last year due to low oil prices, but it is ready to initiate new projects to increase its oil and natural gas production.
'By 2035, there will be two billion more people on the planet. All forms of energy are going to be needed,' he said.
Dudley said BP would continue to invest in Russia, while being 'very careful of not going outside the boundaries of the sanctions.'
BP has been haunted from its history of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the U.S.' Gulf Coast in 2010, which killed 11 workers and went into history as the biggest oil disaster in American history. Thereafter, the implementation of the highest-level safety standards became crucial for the company.
'After the accident in the Gulf, we began applying the toughest safety standards in all of our projects around the world,' Dudley stressed.
Deepwater Horizon was exploring oil and gas in the Macondo prospect off the coast of the U.S. state of Louisiana -- a site known for deep-water exploration.
Dudley said the company's commitment to deep-water oil and gas projects will continue, adding for such projects, which are crucial for long-term oil and gas supplies in the global market, that 'in the right places, it is very economic.'
By Ovunc Kutlu in Houston, Texas
Anadolu Agency
ovunc.kutlu@aa.com.tr