News: BP’s oil mogul breaks myths of the industry

The Energy Institute (EI) hosted Lord Browne of Madingley, BP Group Chief Executive, as the keynote speaker at this year’s International Petroleum (IP) Week dinner. Lord Browne spoke of the myths surrounding the oil industry, including current oil prices, high profits, damage to the environment, and security of supply.

Lord Browne provided dinner guests with details of BP’s latest project. He said: “Last year we announced a plan to take natural gas from the North Sea, to separate out the carbon and the hydrogen molecules; to re-inject the carbon into an existing North Sea oil field – thereby increasing the amount of recoverable reserves, and extending the life of that field by 15 to 20 years – and then to take the hydrogen to a power station on the Scottish coast at Peterhead, to produce carbon-free electricity.’” The project could be on stream by 2009, with the potential for producing up to 40 million barrels of oil, and setting an example for what could be achieved elsewhere. Lord Browne added, “If the technology works at this scale – and we believe it will – the global potential is enormous, opening up the possibility of taking the carbon out of all the different forms of hydrocarbons, including coal.’

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