- Energy giant BP has recently changed its strategy and pulled back from some of its green energy plans after pressure from shareholders.
- At the end of February, BP announced a drastic pullback from renewables in favour of more oil and gas, claiming that it went “too far, too fast” on green energy.
Energy giant, BP has recently changed its strategy and pulled back from some of its green energy plans after pressure from shareholders to make more money from fossil fuels. BP has cancelled the HyGreen project on Teesside but said it remains committed to a number of other big projects in the area.
BP had said that HyGreen Teesside would have been one of the UK’s biggest green hydrogen production facilities, supplying 500 MW of power by 2030. It had signed early-stage agreements with a number of companies on Teesside to take power produced from the project.
A BP spokesman said, “As we set out in our strategy reset announcement last Wednesday, in hydrogen and carbon capture, we’re focused on high-graded projects, prioritising five to seven projects for this decade. In the UK, we focus on significant projects in Teesside – NZT Power, NEP, and H2Teesside (blue hydrogen). Therefore, we are no longer progressing our plans to develop HyGreen.”
At the end of February, BP announced a drastic pullback from renewables in favour of more oil and gas, claiming that it went “too far, too fast” on green energy. Chief executive Murray Auchincloss said that while BP was still aiming to hit net zero carbon emissions by 2050, it would slash its annual renewables spending by nearly three-quarters.
The move followed pressure from some investors to boost profits at the firm but has also angered environmental groups and contradicts guidance by global energy bodies designed to help limit climate change. Mr Auchincloss said, “Our optimism for a fast (energy) transition was misplaced, and we went too far, too fast.”