BP efforts to scale back renewables won't affect JV with EnBW (updated)

EnBW Energie Baden Wuerttemberg AG

12/11/2024 14:05

(Adds details and background from paragraph 4)
       FRANKFURT, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Current efforts by BP
 BP.L  to scale back its renewables activities have no impact on
an offshore wind joint venture the oil major has with EnBW
 EBKG.DE , the German utility's finance chief told analysts on
Tuesday.
    Both companies formed a 50:50 partnership in 2021 to jointly
develop offshore wind projects in Britain, where they hold
agreements for lease on two 60-year leases in the Irish Sea as
well as an option agreement for another lease in the North Sea.
    The three projects, dubbed Morven, Morgan and Mona, cover
potential generation capacity of 5.9 gigawatts, enough to power
around 6 million UK households.
    Sources told Reuters last month that BP was considering
selling a minority stake in its offshore wind business, the
latest effort by CEO Murray Auchincloss to scale back the energy
company's focus on renewables.
    "We are in close contact with BP and we do not see any
impact of their intentions to scale down their overall
renewables business, because it's not on the level of our JV,"
EnBW CFO Thomas Kusterer said after presenting nine-month
results.
    "If they were to do something, that's at least my
understanding, it's on a ... global level and not on a JV
level," he added. "What we are hearing from them in our JV (is
that) we are progressing well with the project and we do not see
any kind of impact on an operational level."

 (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Friederike Heine and
Jonathan Oatis)
 ((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 30 220 133 647))