Galp to stop conducting new oil, gas exploration and prospecting activities in 2022

  • ECO News
  • 3 November 2021

"It's a big step for the company to say we're not going to do any more drilling in undiscovered fields," Galp's CEO, Andy Brown, stated this Wednesday.

Galp’s CEO, Andy Brown, announced on Wednesday that the Portuguese company will stop conducting new oil, gas exploration, and prospecting activities from 2022.

“It’s a big step for Galp to say we’re not going to do any more drilling in undiscovered fields. We’re not going to have any new licences. Until the end of the year, we will still drill two new wells, one in São Tomé and another in Brazil. They will be the last ones in new areas. All the others will be in areas where we already operate,” Galp’s CEO told journalists present at a meeting with CEOs from several companies, such as Vítor Bento, from CTT, Pinto Magalhães from Central de Cervejas, or João de Mello, from Bondalti.

Without modesty, Brown even stressed Galp is “the first oil company in the world to announce this” decision. “We’ve had a lot of success in the past discovering resources and a lot of opportunities,” he justified. “And because we want to make a fast transition: 40% less emissions in the energy we produce by 2030.”

“We have to start a reduction journey mainly in oil. Galp is a very successful exploration company, involved in two of the biggest discoveries of the last 20 years in the world; the Brazilian pre-salt and the gas in Mozambique. It was a great journey that we will now finish. When I came to Galp we adopted a new strategy for the future and we want to be serious. We are going from an oil and gas company to a company that has more renewables and low-carbon solutions,” Brown concluded.