BP Plc is planning to eliminate routine flaring of natural gas in the Permian Basin by 2025 through over $1 billion worth of new pipelines, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal.

The plan, believed to be announced within days, includes spending about $1.3 billion to build a network of pipelines and other infrastructures.

“We will be producing oil and gas for decades, but it will be a certain kind of oil and gas,” Dave Lawler, the chairman of BP America Inc., said in the WSJ report on April 18. “It’s a highly profitable barrel and it’s a responsibly produced barrel.”

BP took over unconventional oil and gas assets in the Permian Delaware Basin in early 2019 following its acquisition of BHP’s American shale assets.

The investment in the Permian Basin would follow an ambitious plan launched by BP to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by rapidly growing its renewables energy business and cutting oil output. Despite the changes, oil and gas is set to remain BP’s main source of revenue until at least 2030.

Last month, BP reported its greenhouse gas emissions from its oil fields to its clients’ car exhausts had dropped 10% to around 374 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2020,

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