BP, NYK Line to work together to decarbonise shipping, other sectors

British oil and gas company BP and Japanese shipping major NYK Line have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on future fuels and transportation solutions to help industrial sectors, including shipping, decarbonise.

For shipping, the companies will collaborate and identify opportunities to help transition from current marine fuels to alternatives such as LNG, biofuels, and methanol, and to develop future fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen.

“Getting this journey right will be critical to enabling the shipping industry to meet its long-term decarbonisation ambitions,” according to the duo.

For other hard-to-abate industrial sectors, the two partners will also consider potential marine transportation and other solutions for carbon dioxide, and explore participation in the supply chains for ammonia and hydrogen to be used in heavy industry and power generation, to help those sectors decarbonise.

“BP and NYK Line have a combined experience of almost 250 years working in the shipping sector, strong existing relationships and a shared understanding of the need for the marine industry to decarbonise,” William Lin, EVP regions, cities and solutions, BP, commented.

“By bringing together our technical expertise, understanding of the supply chain, and insights from our customers, I am confident that together we can do more to drive change at pace in hard-to-abate sectors”.

BP has set out an ambition to be a net zero company by 2050, or sooner and help the world get to net zero, and a strategy for delivering on that ambition. Partnering with countries, cities and corporations ‎to provide innovative energy, mobility and decarbonization solutions as they shape their ‎paths to net zero is said to be a core part of this strategy.

“We look forward to developing even more valuable solutions in the field of decarbonisation,” Akira Kono, Senior Managing Executive Officer-Chief Executive of Energy Division, NYK Line, said, adding that NYK is seeking to become one of the leading companies in the shipping industry’s decarbonisation journey.