bp and Chubu Electric to explore decarbonisation opportunities

bp and Chubu Electric signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on February 2 to explore opportunities for decarbonisation in Japan and the wider Asia region. 

Chubu Electric is one of the largest energy companies in Japan. The Chubu group has a history of more than seven decades across the energy value chain, including power generation, power transmission/distribution and energy retail business. Chubu aims to reduce emissions from its businesses to net zero by 2050.

“This MoU is the key step for bp and Chubu towards the net zero journey. We are convinced that our business activities for the decarbonisation solution will definitely contribute to the climate neutrality of our planet,” said Hiroki Sato, Chubu’s senior managing executive officer, Division CEO, Global Business Division. 

It also represents a further potential opportunity alongside the large-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects for industrial clusters bp is pursuing globally. bp is already in the Texas Gulf Coast industrial corridor in the United States and in Teesside, the industrial heart of the United Kingdom.  

bp is focusing on working with corporates in key industrial sectors that have significant carbon emissions to manage, to help them to decarbonize. Its ambition is to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner, and to help the world to get to net zero.  

This particular MoU between bp and Chubu Electric includes exploring the feasibility of collecting, aggregating, utilizing and transporting CO2 from major emitters in the Nagoya area to CO2 storage sites, potentially internationally, through Nagoya CCUS hub. This potential infrastructure could support decarbonisation of a range of carbon intensive industrial businesses in the Nagoya area.

Nagoya is Japan’s biggest port in terms of cargo volume. It connects the steel, automotive, aircraft, machine, and manufacturing sectors to global markets. Industries around the port account for 3% of Japan’s total emissions; however, the port has an ambition to reduce its emissions by 35% by 2030 compared to 2013. 

“This MoU builds on the long relationship between Chubu Electric and bp, bringing our complementary skills together to develop potential solutions for decarbonization in Japan and Asia more widely. Pairing our strengths in low carbon solutions and Chubu’s size and history in this industrial region, we believe we have the opportunity to create real change and help some of the hardest to abate sectors transition,” said William Lin, bp’s executive vice president for regions, corporates and solutions. 

The exploratory work will leverage bp’s development experience in large-scale CCS projects for industrial clusters, while Chubu’s deep knowledge and regional business relationships will facilitate development in the port and surrounding areas.  

Beyond Nagoya, bp and Chubu will together explore opportunities to accelerate availability of decarbonisation solutions with a variety of renewable energy technologies in key markets in Asia.