BP is considering a potential sale of a minority stake in its offshore wind business in a move to reduce spending on project developments in the sector, anonymous sources have told Reuters.
Currently, BP doesn’t operate offshore wind farms, but it had a pipeline of offshore wind developments worth 9.6 gigawatts (GW) as of June this year.
The UK-based supermajor, which is pivoting back to its core business of oil and gas to give higher returns to shareholders, has reportedly hired Bank of America to find minority partners for the offshore wind business, according to Reuters’s sources.
Some of these added that BP is looking to reduce its share of the big investments needed to develop and put offshore wind farms into operation.
BP has offshore wind development projects in Germany, the UK, and the U.S.
Last month, the company said it would sell its onshore wind business in the United States and aims to bring together the development of onshore renewable power projects through Lightsource bp. BP Wind Energy has interests in 10 operating onshore wind energy assets across seven U.S. states with net generating capacity totaling 1.3 GW.
Earlier this year, reports emerged that BP had halted hiring across the company and paused new offshore wind power projects as it seeks to reassure investors it is on the right path, focusing on its core business in oil and gas.
BP has also scrapped a previous target to reduce its oil and gas production by the end of the decade, Reuters reported earlier this month.
BP’s CEO Murray Auchincloss, who succeeded Bernard Looney, is set to unveil the company’s new strategy in February 2025, which will include the official removal of the 2030 oil and gas production target, according to Reuters’s sources.
BP aims to pour new investments in oil and gas production and is set to increase its output in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East, the sources said.
