BP hires renewable specialist to head new offshore wind division

Oil and gas giant BP is set to appoint an executive from Danish wind power firm Orsted to head its new offshore wind division according to Reuters.

Matthias Bausenwein will join BP in the second half of 2022.

The new arrival stepped down this month as Orsted’s president of Asia Pacific, the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer.

It also announced the creation of an onshore wind and solar power unit, with the two new divisions running alongside its existing hydrogen and carbon, capture, usage and storage (CCUS) business as the company’s main renewable energy operations.

The creation of the separate divisions follows rapid growth within BP’s wind, solar and low-carbon energy projects over the past year and comes before Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath takes over as head of all BP’s low carbon and gas businesses in March.

The British energy company is looking to restructure its renewable businesses to help drive its transition away from fossil fuels.

Recently it has announced plans to build a hydrogen hub in Teeside and has also bid on Scottish wind power sites offshore during a £700m auction process.

It has also faced criticism from former BP boss Lord Browne which has called for the company to be split into smaller pieces to boost its transition to net zero emissions.

Lord Browne helmed the company between 1995 and 2007, and has now advocated “separating low and zero-carbon activity from their fossil-fuel business”.

Over the past year, BP’s pipeline of offshore development projects has gone from zero to more than 5 gigawatts (GW) with new wind farms lined up off Britain and the United States.

Read the latest issue of the OGV Energy magazine HERE