diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 62dc930e658d13db4bc7c0b3b43e8d84bf97540d..d7b4e0af75e8e2055f0d13919bcb5c69777fabca 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -71,8 +71,21 @@ osdu-gcp-deploy:
     - gsutil -m rsync -x "dags/providers*" -d -R dags  $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET/dags/ingestion
     - gsutil -m rsync -d -R dags/providers  $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET/dags/providers
     - gsutil -m rsync -R plugins $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET/plugins
-  only:
-    variables:
-        - $OSDU_GCP == 'true'
+  except:
+    - /^release\/*/
+  when: manual
 
+osdu-gcp-deploy-pre-prod:
+  stage: deploy
+  script:
+    - gcloud auth activate-service-account --key-file $OSDU_GCP_DEPLOY_FILE
+    - cd src
+    - gsutil -m rsync -x "dags/libs*" -d -R dags  $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET_PREPROD/dags/ingestion
+    - gsutil -m rsync -d -R dags/libs  $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET_PREPROD/dags/libs
+    - gsutil -m rsync -x "dags/providers*" -d -R dags  $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET_PREPROD/dags/ingestion
+    - gsutil -m rsync -d -R dags/providers  $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET_PREPROD/dags/providers
+    - gsutil -m rsync -R plugins $OSDU_GCP_DEPL_TARGET_PREPROD/plugins
+  only:
+    - /^release\/*/
+  when: manual