BP puts brakes on Kwinana clean fuel plans
BP has stood down contractors working on its biofuel plant just weeks before discovering if its adjacent green hydrogen project will win $1 billion of government backing.
In WA BP has one-sixth of the North West Shelf LNG project, is the major shareholder in the Browse LNG project, operates the Australian Renewable Energy Hub and if developing new energy projects a its shattered Kwinana oil refinery.
BP has stood down contractors working on its biofuel plant just weeks before discovering if its adjacent green hydrogen project will win $1 billion of government backing.
Green hydrogen has long term promise for WA but needs help to scale and escape the trap of being an expensive product with a limited market.
BP's Ironbark well off WA is a duster with "no significant hydrocarbon shows" killing hopes of gas supply to the North West Shelf LNG plant and crashing shares in Cue and NZ Oil and Gas.
Triangle Energy has six months to find a viable route to market for oil that now goes to BP Kwinana or its Cliff Head operation could become a liability for the Federal Government.
The effect of BP closing its Kwinana oil refinery after 65 years will be felt far and wide in the WA economy - especially among workers and other industries, but BP will do just fine.
WA wants to hear from companies interested in turning the Oakajee industrial site into a hub for green hydrogen.
BP, unlike Chevron, remains committed to Woodside-operated North West Shelf LNG as it waits to drill nearby Ironbark, but Browse is unlikely to meet its investment criteria.
BP has joined Yara in looking at huge projects to unlock WA's vast solar and wind resources to replace gas in the production of ammonia.
Some of the biggest oil and gas companies in the world are playing an expensive game of brinkmanship in the North West of WA.
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