BP signs clean energy deal with China
January 18th, 2008 | XinhuaBritish Petroleum (BP) announced it had signed a series of agreements
with China on Friday, including those in clean energy and wind power
generation, during British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s visit to China.
Brown and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao attended the signing ceremony.
Under the agreement, BP and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), will
study the feasibility of setting up a joint Clean Energy
Commercialization Center (CECC) later this year.
The CECC, proposed last year, aims at commercializing clean energy
technologies, including coal gratification, coal to liquids, coal to
chemicals, carbon capture and storage.
The two sides would use the center as a platform to promote research
and development in the near zero emissions clean coal initiative and
launch related pilot programs.
In a framework agreement with Beijing Tianrun New Energy Investment
Co., the two sides said they would jointly invest in three 49.5 megawatt
wind power plants in northern Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. They
also agreed to explore further wind power investment opportunities.
According to a memorandum of understanding, BP and China Petrochemical
Corporation (Sinopec Group) agreed to add a new 650,000 tons capacity
acetic acid plant at their joint venture in the southwestern
municipality Chongqing.
The new plant is expected to be operational in 2011 when the annual
capacity would reach more than one million tons.
London-based BP has invested more than US$4.3 billion in China
commercial projects, including natural gas production, fuel and lubricants
sales, and petrochemicals manufacturing, since it entered the country in
the early 1970s.