By Ron Bousso
LONDON (Reuters) – BP’s head of offshore wind Matthias Bausenwein is leaving the company, a spokesperson told Reuters on Monday, after the oil major announced it was spinning off its offshore wind operations into a joint venture with Japanese power firm JERA.
Bausenwein joined BP from Danish renewables giant Orsted in August 2022 to lead the British company’s build-up of offshore wind projects.
He is the second most senior leader to leave BP’s renewables business after its head Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, a former CEO of RWE Renewables, left the company in April, after just over two years in the job.
Richard Sandford, who also joined BP in 2022 from RWE Renewables, is taking up the role of interim head of offshore wind, the spokesperson said.
BP and JERA have agreed to join forces to form one of the world’s largest offshore wind operators, a major step in CEO Murray Auchincloss’ efforts to reduce BP’s focus on renewables.
The 50-50 venture, called JERA Nex bp, will pool together operating assets and development projects with a potential generation capacity of 13 gigawatts (GW), the two companies said in a statement.
The partners have agreed to provide up to $5.8 billion in funding for projects approved by the joint venture by 2030, with BP contributing up to $3.25 billion and JERA paying up to $2.55 billion as BP’s assets in the JV have yet to be developed.
(Reporting by Ron Bousso; Editing by Mark Potter)
