BP has seen significant increases in drilling productivity in 2025 and could consider adding a rig in 2026, the company said during its quarterly earnings call November 4.
CEO Murray Auchincloss said the company’s U.S. onshore oil and gas business, known as bpx, has shown a 30% improvement in well completions and a 15% improvement in drilling efficiency over the last 12 months, which he said puts them in the top quartile in each of the basins in which the company operates. He specifically cited progress in the Haynesville, where bpx completed a well with a four-mile lateral that is now producing 80 MMcf/d, which said was a record for the shale play.
The company is running eight oil and gas rigs across bpx and he said it would have a conversation going into 2026 about whether to move it up to nine rigs. Auchincloss said the productivity improvements seen in 2025 have been so strong that they have drilled 13 wells “basically for free this year” relative to its previous plans.
Auchincloss said capital spending at bpx would hold steady at around $2.5 billion in the next couple of years, although they have the opportunity to “flex that up and down” as needed.
