Oil giant BP has signed up Kinchs firm, Energy Development Partners, to run its Wareham and Kimmeridge wells in Dorset - part of the biggest inland oilfield in Europe. The deal, which is likely to generate several million pounds for both EDP and BP, is set to be followed by a larger contract with another oil group this summer. Kinch said: "We have agreed with BP that this is a starting point. It is not unreasonable to think that if this is successful, there will be other projects. "BP is a fantastic name to be associated with. We hope to sign up equally significant names soon." EDP was set up by Kinch and industry veteran Mike Robinson last year to help large oil companies extract profits from low-priority fields in the UK and the North Sea. The Aberdeenshire company finances production and hires contractors, leaving ownership of the field with groups such as BP and Shell. Kinch and Robinson now plan to raise £160m to add to the £60m war chest provided for EDP by venture capital group 3i last year. The pair are talking to banks, venture capital houses and funds on both sides of the Atlantic in the hope of raising the money by late 2005. That cash will be used to attack an estimated £300m of potential projects which Kinch and Robinson have identified in the UK alone over the next four years. "We hope to land it all," Kinch said. EDP plans to make money from the fact that major oil groups are concentrating on exploration and production in new areas such as Africa. By offering to finance production, it gives companies such as BP and Shell a low-risk way to make money from their assets in the more established UK continental shelf. Kinch said this approach offered an alternative to the idea of selling oilfields to smaller oil companies. "There is a lot of asset churning going on in the industry at the moment, but the only way you are going to produce cash from an asset is to get oil or gas out of the damn thing," he said. EDP, currently based on Kinchs country estate near Milltimber, is likely to move to formal offices in Aberdeen next year. The company has just recruited a commercial director, Tom Reynolds, a former investment executive at 3is Aberdeen office, who has also worked for BP and Total. Two other employees are expected to join later this year. Kinch said: "We will never be a big direct employer, but through our projects we will employ hundreds, if not thousands." Aberdeen-born Kinch is a serial oil industry entrepreneur with an estimated fortune of £50m. He set up Petroleum Engineering Services in 1986 and Venture Production in 1997. PES was bought by oil services group Halliburton for £111m in 2000 and Venture floated in 2002. EDP is seen by 3i as a star in its oil and gas investment portfolio, which is run from Aberdeen by Graeme Sword. He said: "EDP is a business we have big hopes for. It is a completely new concept - the type of company we could invest in twice a year for the next three years." The venture capital firms biggest energy deal, the £500m buyout of ABBs Vetco Gray division, will be completed "within weeks", says Sword. The deal, which also involves venture capital house Candover and merchant bank JP Morgan, was approved by European regulators in February but subsequently hit technical problems. Sword added that his group was likely to fund six energy projects from Aberdeen this year - three in the UK, two in Norway and one elsewhere in Europe, possibly Denmark or the Netherlands. Some of the deals were likely to be with early stage oil and gas technology companies, he said. Kinch recently received the oil industrys Alick Buchanan-Smith memorial award for his contribution to the Scottish offshore industry. Robinson is a former director of production technology at WellDynamics International, a joint venture between Shell and Halliburton. PIN//Scotsman