SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
Form 6-K
Report of Foreign Issuer
Pursuant to Rule 13a-16 or 15d-16 of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
for the period ended 18 July 2006
BP p.l.c.
(Translation of registrant's name into English)
1 ST JAMES'S SQUARE, LONDON, SW1Y 4PD, ENGLAND
(Address of principal executive offices)
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual
reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.
Form 20-F |X| Form 40-F
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Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information
contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the
Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of
1934.
Yes No |X|
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BP AND GE TO DEVELOP HYDROGEN POWER PLANTS AND TECHNOLOGIES
London, UK, July 18, 2006 -- BP and GE today announced their intention to
jointly develop and deploy hydrogen power projects that dramatically reduce
emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from electricity generation.
Vivienne Cox, BP's Chief Executive of Gas, Power and Renewables, and David L.
Calhoun, Vice Chairman of GE and president and CEO of GE Infrastructure, signed
the agreement today in London.
The world will continue to make extensive use of fossil fuels, such as natural
gas and coal, for power generation for the foreseeable future, but technology
now allows this to be done more cleanly by creating hydrogen from fossil fuels
while capturing and sequestering the carbon as carbon dioxide in deep geological
formations. To facilitate this advancement, BP and GE will collaborate on power,
carbon capture and sequestration technologies.
"The combination of our two companies' skills and resources in this area is
formidable, and is the latest example of our intent to make a real difference in
the face of the challenge of climate change," said BP's Vivienne Cox. "BP and
GE's strategic approaches to developing increasingly cleaner, lower carbon power
options are closely aligned and our skills and strengths are highly
complementary."
"Tomorrow's energy mix will include hydrogen - and GE and BP are taking the lead
in ensuring progress begins today," said David Calhoun of GE. "This initiative
will demonstrate that our companies' leading-edge technologies can make hydrogen
production efficient, reliable, and economical for large-scale, commercial power
production. Our financial strength will ensure it happens now globally, changing
the way we envision our energy future."
BP has already announced plans for two such hydrogen power projects with carbon
capture and sequestration in Scotland and California, both of which will use GE
technology. Subject to appropriate regulatory and fiscal regimes being in place,
and necessary due diligence, the companies have an ambition to progress 10 to 15
further projects over the next decade, including the plants in Scotland and
California. Subject to further exploration, the current expectation is that the
most appropriate structure may be through creation of a joint venture to invest
in hydrogen power projects and a joint development agreement for development of
related technology. As a first step, BP and GE would jointly participate in the
two hydrogen power projects with carbon capture and sequestration BP has
announced - at Peterhead in Scotland and at Carson in Southern California where
Scottish and Southern Energy and Edison Mission Energy are partners
respectively.
Such low carbon power projects use fossil fuels such as natural gas, petroleum
coke or coal for power generation combined with carbon dioxide capture and
storage technology. They generate significant quantities of base-load power
while capturing and storing some 90% of the carbon dioxide that would otherwise
be emitted, in deep geological formations.
BP and GE will apply some of the world's leading technologies, project
experience and assets to optimise the integrated design. The collaborative
effort will draw upon the companies' technologies and experience in areas such
as coal gasification, reforming technology, gas turbines and carbon capture and
storage.
"The combination of coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration is
crucial for clean coal development and presents great opportunities for
countries with substantial reserves of coal such as the USA, China and India,"
says Lewis Gillies, BP's Director of Hydrogen Power.
"GE and BP are combining our resources to develop economically attractive,
breakthrough technologies in the area of hydrogen to power. This will allow
power producers to use abundant, low-cost fossil fuel resources to generate
electricity with very low carbon dioxide emissions," said Edward Lowe, general
manager of GE Energy's gasification business.
In addition to the complementary nature of the technologies and experience of
the two companies, the collaboration is expected to be further strengthened by
the global reach of each of the partners. GE's operations in Houston and BP's
operations in London will form the core groups for the hydrogen power
collaboration.
Notes to editors:
- BP (www.bp.com) is one of the world's largest energy companies, with
2005 profits of some $19 billion, a presence in over 100 countries and 96,000
staff worldwide. BP's main businesses are in exploration and production of oil
and gas, refining and marketing of oil products, and the transportation and
marketing of natural gas and power. In addition to BP's low carbon power
interests in BP Alternative Energy, the company has extensive experience in
pipelines and the management of oil and gas in geological formations, power
generation, petrochemicals operations and in carbon capture and storage
technology.
- GE Energy (www.ge.com/energy) is one of the world's leading suppliers
of power generation and energy delivery technologies, with 2005 revenue of $16.5
billion. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, GE Energy works in all areas of the energy
industry including coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear energy; renewable
resources such as water, wind, solar and biogas; and other alternative fuels.
Numerous GE Energy products are certified under ecomaginationSM, GE's
corporate-wide initiative to aggressively bring to market new technologies that
will help customers meet pressing environmental challenges.
- Hydrogen power fits with the spirit of ecomaginationSM, the GE
corporate commitment to address challenges such as the need for cleaner, more
efficient sources of energy. Ecomagination technologies already launched by GE
in the energy arena include products that generate electricity through the use
of renewable, biogas or waste gas technologies, high-efficiency and
lower-emissions gas turbines and engines, and cleaner coal technology.
- Hydrogen power and carbon capture and sequestration is a key part of
BP's growing low-carbon power generation business, BP Alternative Energy. This
business, launched in 2005, combines BP's interests in hydrogen power with BP
Solar, BP's photovoltaic company, and the company's interests in wind power and
natural gas-fired power generation. BP anticipates investing some $8 billion in
BP Alternative Energy over the next decade reinforcing its determination to grow
its businesses "beyond petroleum".
- A hydrogen power project takes a fossil fuel, such as natural gas or
coal, and converts it into hydrogen and carbon dioxide. The hydrogen-rich gas is
used as the fuel gas to generate electric power from turbines in a power plant.
The carbon dioxide is captured, transported and stored safely and permanently in
deep geological formations such as oil and gas fields. Power generation accounts
for some 40% of man-made carbon dioxide emissions. By combining hydrogen power
generation with carbon capture and storage in one integrated project, 90% of the
carbon dioxide in the fuel is captured so that it does not enter the atmosphere
and a substantial step is made towards tackling the climate change issue.
- BP has already announced plans for two hydrogen power plants. At
Peterhead, Scotland, BP together with Scottish and Southern Energy plan to
build a 475MW hydrogen fired power plant based on natural gas. It would
sequester 1.8 million tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide 4,000 metres below
the seabed in the Miller oil field where the carbon dioxide will enable the
production of some 40 million barrels of oil that would not otherwise have
been recoverable. A final investment decision is due in early 2007 so the
plant can be in commercial operation in 2010.
The second project is a 500MW hydrogen power plant at Carson, southern
California. BP, and partner Edison Mission Energy, would take petroleum coke, a
refinery by-product and synthetic form of coal, to create the hydrogen. The
plant will capture and store 4 million tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide which,
like the Peterhead project, will enable incremental oil production. This project
is scheduled to be complete in 2011.
For further details:
GE Energy BP press contacts
Dennis Murphy Robert Wine
GE Energy BP Press Office
+1 678 844 6948 +44 (0)20 7496 4827
dennis.murphy@ge.com
Ken Darling or Howard Masto
Masto Public Relations
+1 518 786 6488
kenneth.darling@ge.com
howard.masto@ge.com
SIGNATURES
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
BP p.l.c.
(Registrant)
Dated: 18 July 2006 /s/ D. J. PEARL
..............................
D. J. PEARL
Deputy Company Secretary