BP said a veteran of giant fossil projects who helped bring Caspian Sea gas to Europe will lead its charge into US offshore wind, as the UK oil giant declared itself “delighted” with early positives from its tie-up with Equinor off New York.

BP CEO Bernard Looney said Ewan Drummond, who led the company’s Shah Deniz gas project, would ensure the supermajor adds value to the two offshore wind projects it will advance with Equinor, as he works alongside executives from the Norwegian group under their joint venture that only completed last week.

“I wouldn’t underestimate what we can do on construction,” Looney told financial analysts, as he again faced questions over BP’s potential to drive up returns from its ballooning investments in the until-now alien sector of renewable power.

“If you look at offshore wind, these are massive projects, billions of dollars, multi-year.

“What we have today is Ewan Drummond, VP of Shah Deniz, who built a project through seven countries, over mountains, under the sea, bringing gas from the Caspian to Europe – 25% under budget, on schedule – now sitting on top of that JV with Equinor, bringing his experience”.

The Shah Deniz consortium in late 2020 began delivering gas to Europe from BP’s $28bn Shah Deniz gas field in Azerbaijan via a 3,500km pipeline. Drummond is currently listed on the group's website as Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey vice-president for BP, which has been approached by Recharge to clarify his current role.

Investment looks better

Looney said BP was “delighted” with the early progress of the Equinor JV, which is advancing the Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 projects of up to 4.4GW, with first power expected to flow from mid-decade.

Between the first announcement of the partnership and the deal closing last week, Equinor – and by extension BP, which paid $1.1bn for a 50% share of the projects – were successful in a second green power procurement round by New York state, which means 3.3GW of capacity is now accounted for.

Looney said that means the projects can move ahead rapidly and have been “significantly derisked”.

“We’re ahead of schedule already. That project is going very, very well,” said Looney.

“That investment looks better today than it did just a few months ago.”

Hyperactive market

Looney confirmed that BP and Equinor would seek more opportunities in US offshore wind, and welcomed new President Joe Biden’s big stated ambitions for the sector.

Offshore wind and the capacity developed by its Lightsource BP solar unit will be the key drivers in BP’s push to amass 50GW of renewable power capacity by 2050, making it among the most ambitious among oil and gas giants.

But Looney insisted that BP would not sacrifice its 8-10%-plus expectations on returns in a dash to add projects in a “hyperactive” renewables market.

The CEO said BP late last year walked away from a potential major solar portfolio deal in the US for that reason, and rejected 12GW of potential deals in Q4 alone.

Wind

BP veteran 'who brought Caspian gas to Europe' will plug New York into offshore wind