Investment promotion agencies that want to see investment in oil exploration and production in their own countries should ensure Richard Olver’s name is in their address books.

Mr Olver was appointed to the board of BP – one of the largest energy groups in the world – and became chief executive officer of exploration and production on January 1, 1998.

A chartered engineer with a first-class Honours degree in civil engineering, Mr Olver is also a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers.

Born in 1947, he was deputy chief executive of BP Exploration from 1995 until his ascension to the board. He joined the company in 1973 following a brief period employed in the design and construction of highways and bridges.

Mr Olver is optimistic about the future of the energy industry and says “a great deal was achieved in 2001” by BP in terms of production: the group delivered on its 5.5% volume growth objective and finished the year at record production in excess of 3.5 million barrels per day. According to Mr Olver, BP “feels good about the medium term – 2003 to 2006” and thinks that growth can to continue post-2006. That’s what everyone in FDI loves – an optimist.

“This year, we will allow a slight annual decline in production, probably on average by about 50,000 barrels per day. This will be offset by a strong ramp-up of our 2001 new projects, together with the new start-ups in 2002 – five significant ones this year,” says Mr Olver.

Among the new projects for this year, BP plans to bring on stream King and King's Peak, Princess and Horn Mountain in the Gulf of Mexico and several smaller projects in the UK. This should provide for a 5.5% increase in BP’s production. However, after 2006 “no new exploration success is assumed. We expect to be able to replace around 170% of our production over the 2003 to 2006 period with quality barrels that come with low lifting costs,” he explains.

As for the new projects beyond 2006, Mr Olver says “there are real opportunities being matured and some of them will receive funding commitments this year and next”.

Some of the growth nodes are continuing gas exploration in Trinidad; the Gulf of Mexico, “where the prospective inventory is robust and should feed growth in each year beyond 2006, at least through the end of the decade”; and Angola, where there should be “considerable further growth potential and additional exploration possibilities”. Other areas are Russia and the Caspian, with full development of the super-giant ACG field and exploration possibilities beyond that.