North Sea fields included in bp’s near-term UK investment priorities

Offshore staff

LONDON – bp has committed to spend up to £18 billion ($22.52 billion) on UK projects between now and the end of 2030.

In the UK North Sea, the company will develop lower-emission oil and gas projects to support near-term security of supply at its Murlach, Kate and Mungo fields around the ETAP hub in the central sector, and the Clair and Schiehallion fields west of Shetland.

In addition, the company plans new exploration around its existing North Sea hubs, and to progress asset electrification projects in the central North Sea and west of Shetland to cut its operational emissions and support the UK’s North Sea Transition Deal.

For UK offshore wind, bp, in partnership with EnBW, is developer of two 60-year offshore wind leases in the Irish Sea, with a combined potential generating capacity of 3 GW; and of a lease option offshore eastern Scotland, awarded under the Scotwind round, with a potential generating capacity of 2.9 GW.

Other plans include the construction of four ships to support offshore wind projects across the UK, subject to technical and commercial due diligence, at an estimated cost of over £100 million ($125 million); and the creation of two large-scale hydrogen production facilities, H2 Teesside (blue) and HyGreen Teesside (green).

Collectively these could deliver 1.5GW of hydrogen by 2030 – 15% of the UK government’s 10G W target by 2030. 

The company plans further investment in carbon capture and storage to serve the East Coast Cluster (ECC), named recently by the government as one of the UK’s first CCS projects, with a target of removing nearly 50% of all UK industrial cluster CO2 emissions.

And bp is leading Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) in northeast England, which it says could be the world’s first commercial scale gas-fired power station with carbon capture.

05.03.2022