“You will see portfolio changes for us in the North Sea, but you may see us invest in other projects as people approach us about joining them. So I think there’s a mix, but we should double our production by 2020 from where it was in 2015,” Dudley said.

The manager went on to add:

“We should be over 200,000 barrels a day in 2020 and by then I’m hopeful our exploration program will lead to more things to do.”

Even though he admitted that the North Sea is largely contains mature fields and things would never go back the way they were when oil was sitting comfortably at US$100, Dudley expects that BP could pump oil in the North Sea until 2050 at least.

“The myth that the North Sea is finished is absolutely that. It’s a wrong myth,” Dudley told Energy Voice.

Speaking to Aberdeen staff back in July, Dudley said that BP’s operating costs in the North Sea were high, but are now down to around US$17 per barrel, according to Energy Voice. With that benchmark behind them, the oil major is now targeting operating costs at US$12 per barrel, the manager noted.

Most recently, BP said at the end of last month that it had bought interests in two North Sea exploration prospects, Jock Scott and Craster. Earlier this week, BP announced that drilling had started on a potential carboniferous gas play in the southern North Sea. In both statements, the oil major said:

“BP North Sea expects to grow production for UK assets to around 200,000 barrels per day by 2020, with an exciting set of future investment and renewal options capable of sustaining a material business into the 2030s.”

Earlier this year, BP announced it had doubled its interest in the largest discovered gas field in the North Sea in the last ten years, the Culzean development.