Jan 21 2008
BP announced today during a ceremony in the Great Hall of People in Beijing that it had signed a series of agreements to enhance its commitment to China. These agreements involve strategic integration and commercialisation of clean coal conversion technologies, wind power generation and world-class acetic acid production. The British Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown and the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, as well as officials from both British and Chinese governments, witnessed the signing.
"BP's total investment in China has exceeded US$4 billion since our arrival some three decades ago," said Dr Gary Dirks, BP president of Asia Pacific and China, at the signing ceremony. "Our commercial and social investments serve a clear purpose, which is to provide quality products and materials to help Chinese consumers improve their quality of life and protect the well-being of the environment. I am pleased that BP is continuing to take steps in delivering this commitment."
Clean Energy Commercialisation Centre
BP and the China Academy of Sciences (CAS) signed an agreement to undertake a feasibility study into a proposed Clean Energy Commercialization Centre (CECC) joint venture. This represents a major step forward following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Shanghai last August.
Under the agreement, CECC is intended to integrate individual clean energy related technologies - coal gasification, coal to liquids, coal to chemical, carbon capture and storage, coal bed methane and underground gasification - from CAS institutes and other organizations both within and outside the PRC, into competitive integrated feedstock manufacturing and product distribution systems and solutions such as polygeneration complexes. The CECC would also serve as an international platform to foster collaboration among research institutes, enterprises and other institutions to improve indigenous Chinese innovation capabilities and market applications in areas such as clean coal conversion, zero emission and carbon capture and storage. BP and CAS have also agreed that the CECC would act as a cooperation platform between the two parties in order to support the development of the Sino-UK clean coal conversion related near zero emission initiative, including technology development and demonstration projects.
BP and CAS believe that the commercialisation of clean coal conversion and other clean energy conversion technologies will make an important contribution to China's future energy security whilst also helping to reduce CO2 emissions and address China's future energy security and environmental sustainability issues. A full time working team drawn from both BP and CAS has been established to progress the feasibility study and the joint venture contract, with the aim of establishing the CECC joint venture by the end of 2008.
Wind Power
BP signed a framework agreement with Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment Co., a subsidiary of Goldwind Science and Technology Co., Ltd., with the intention of jointly investing, constructing, and operating three 49.5 megawatt wind power plants near Bayan Obo in Inner Mongolia. The two parties have also agreed to explore further wind power investment opportunities in other areas of Inner Mongolia.
Acetic Acid
BP and Sinopec signed a Memorandum of Understanding to add a new 650k tonnes acetic acid plant at their YARACO joint Venture in Chongqing, upstream Yangtze River, Southwest China. This marks another major milestone in strengthening the existing partnership in acetic acid production and follows on from the successful investment in Yangtze River Acetyls Company (YARACO) in Chongqing, and in the BP Yangtze Petrochemicals Acetyls Company (BYACO) in Nanjing.
This world-scale acetic acid plant, using BP's leading Cativa(r) technology, would have an annual capacity of 650,000 tonnes. The plant is estimated to be on stream in 2011, when the total production at the YARACO site will be well over one million tonnes per annum, making it one of the largest acetic acid production locations in China.