Oil and gas giant BP has launched a new joint venture aimed at making inroads into the burgeoning Japanese offshore wind market.
Alongside Tokyo-headquartered Marubeni, the supermajor will explore a selected offshore wind development opportunity in the East Asian country.
The pair have agreed to form a strategic partnership that could also look into other decarbonisation projects, including hydrogen.
As part of their agreement, BP (LON: BP) will join with Marubeni in its proposal for an offshore wind project off Japan, purchasing a 49% stake in the scheme.
The companies see this as a “first step towards building a market leading offshore wind position” in the country.
BP has also pledged to set up a local offshore wind development team in Tokyo in order to support the partnership.
Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, BP’s executive vice president of gas & low carbon energy, said: “We are unlocking new regions and new opportunities for BP.
“Combining our international energy expertise and technical capabilities with Marubeni’s track record of wind and energy development and first-class regional relationships, we can together build important new clean energy resources for Japan and Asia.
“We want to continue to build on BP’s offshore wind portfolio – and we can’t wait to get to work in Japan with Marubeni.”
Japan is aiming to be carbon neutral by 2050 and has set a target of deploying 10 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2030, rising to 45GW by 2040.
BP has been operating in the country since 1960 and has built up a “sizeable oil and LNG trading” business.
In 2021, the oil giant agreed to work with Japanese shipping company NYK Line on future fuels and transportation solutions to support decarbonisation of the hard-to-abate shipping sector.
BP offshore wind development pipeline currently sits at more than 5 gigawatts (GW) after it secured projects in leasing rounds in England and Scotland.
Marubeni was also a ScotWind winner, bagging acreage in the Firth of Forth alongside SSE Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.
In Japan it constructed the country’s first large-scale, commercial offshore wind project to achieve financial close, the 140MW Akita offshore wind farm project.
The agreement between BP and Marubeni is subject to merger control approvals, with completion expected to follow swiftly following approval being granted.
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