A key appointment and more support from the Government mean bp’s transformative plans on Teesside are moving closer. BUSINESSiQ editor Mike Hughes talked to the company’s new VP for hydrogen and CCUS for the UK, Andy Lane, to get the latest updates
It’s a recognisable trademark of bp globally that when they announce major investments – ones that have the potential to change a region for generations – they soon move away from the spreadsheets and databases and make it personal.
Investors already know what NZT Power, H2Teesside and HyGreen mean for Teesside and decarbonization in the UK, but as well as the stats and sums, this scale of work needs character and empathy so that the future employees, the people who will educate and train them and the people living alongside such tumultuous change understand what is happening and what it can bring for them and their families.
So how bp builds its teams is becoming increasingly important as the long-term success of globally-significant deals is seen through the eyes of people and businesses in towns like Redcar and Darlington and how they engage with the projects.
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The company has a vast resource of experience to draw on, people who are among the best there is, who know how bp ticks and are passionate about what the company’s success could mean for us all.
Andy Lane is a keystone presence in bp’sTeesside projects, having worked on them since 2018. He has worked as the managing director of Northern Endurance Parternership – a joint venture between bp, Equinor and TotalEnergies – which is developing the key CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure which will serve a wide range of carbon emitting projects across Teesside and the Humber. He has just been named as the VP for Hydrogen and CCUS for the UK, making him one of the most influential people in the Carbon Capture world.
“I feel I know this region and certainly the projects particularly well now,” he tells me.
“I’ve been involved for about five years since what originally started as the Net Zero Teesside project, which was the power station and the carbon transportation pipeline and offshore storage.
“That then grew to become the East Coast Cluster, with industrial clusters in Teesside and Humberside linked up to make a much bigger opportunity in line with what the Government was trying to achieve.
“As that played through, my role became quite focused on the infrastructure and connecting all the moving parts for decarbonisation. Now, at the end of a long process, we’ve got much more clarity on what the initial projects are going to be.
“There has been a huge vote of confidence in Teesside, with two bp led East Coast Cluster projects – NZT Power and H2 Teesside – being selected by the UK Government as part of the track 1 cluster sequencing process, and HyGreen recently being selected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to progress to the next stage of negotiations in its first funding round. “So my role is being changed and expanded to focus on those projects and how the Teesside-related activity can be integrated. That means linking the carbon pipeline being developed by the NEP, and the NZT Power station and also H2Teesside (which will produce blue hydrogen by taking natural gas, breaking it into its parts, storing the carbon that’s produced and leaving blue hydrogen).
“The final piece of the jigsaw is that we have now been selected by the government for the HyGreen Teesside project, which will be an electrolytic way of producing hydrogen by using renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.”
Last month HyGreen Teesside was backed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to progress to the next stage of negotiations in its first funding round for green hydrogen projects, which followed the March announcement that it had been shortlisted for two programmes intended to kickstart the low carbon hydrogen economy across the UK.
Andy’s way of breaking down these multi-billion pound projects – we now have a pipeline, a power station and two different types of hydrogen in the same place at the same time – means the fifth ‘project’ he has to run is a pipeline of information and communication.
He knows that you don’t leave it on the page and hope people find it and understand it – you translate and communicate every step of the way.
“That is about protecting existing businesses and the jobs and lifestyles that go with that and then building new businesses on top of that and then beyond that, creating an environment where you’ve got clean power, the ability to take carbon away, and then hydrogen available to you,” he says.
“All of that attracts new businesses and we’re already getting people showing up with new opportunities that link together those things.
“I find that goal fantastically motivating because at the end of it all, when plants are running and carbon is being captured, there are thousands of new jobs that we could help create alongside the hundreds of people who will be operating these facilities for decades to come.
“A big part of the jobs boost we want to bring here is that it can’t just be about young people who are at school that we want to get into apprenticeships and then into the workforce. It has to also be for people who are in a workforce already, and the opportunities it creates for them at a national level, a regional level and then a genuinely local level.
“I can help that happen by delivering the best from our partner group, stakeholders, the supply chain, central government and local government, the regulators and all of the different agencies we will be working with. “There is significant money to be spent by bp and its partners and the banks that support us, so there are levels of complexity there which means a lot of integration. But for me that just means it is exciting – I can really get my hands on it all and bring it together for Teesside.
“These are the first few steps and there will be many others over time that will connect, but this is the gateway and there is strong support for it. Central government is well connected to the different partners involved in each one of those projects and everyone – including the people of Teesside – wants to see progress.
“We are driving this ahead as fast as we can to move energy transition in the UK forward, and focus that movement on Teesside as it genuinely leads the way when it comes to decarbonisation.
“That makes the region a great location to do business and an important place to pioneer this technology, which is so vital for the nation.”
So that’s the plan, delivered with a blend of intelligence, passion, foresight and innovation – but where are the buildings and the recruitment ads? When does the concrete start being poured and the steel start going up?
“I know you can’t yet step out and look over a fence to see it all being built, but I still want people to be excited by the creation of new projects that not only serve a national mission to reduce carbon, but more importantly, really serve a local need,” he says.
“It’s a little difficult to see from the road but there’s actually a lot of activity going on at the site already.
“The Teesworks landowner is remediating the site ready for construction to start and we’ve all seen coverage of the old steelworks coming down – with all the history that has for the region. It’s a sad moment of change for one industry, but there is positivity there as well because what will go back up in its place will last for another 50 years as the next generation of energy production.
“But first the site owner is cleaning it up before we can grow our presence and continue the construction activity that we have started, with earthmovers, diggers and trucks already working for us.
“I would expect construction to be starting third or fourth quarter next year, so a little bit over a year from now, which is where we always expected to be with groundworks and foundations that we need to put down first before we start building things from there.”
One essential element already in place is the £3.2 million Clean Energy Education Hub at Redcar and Cleveland College which will specifically focus on giving people the skills to meet the demands of the growing renewable and low carbon sector.
bp has provided £50,000 in funding for the development, backed 21 paid engineering scholarships for school leavers starting at the college this month and committed to help the hub reach into primary and secondary schools to inspire young people across Teesside to pursue careers in clean energy.
Andy says: “The Hub is an amazing place, and now we need to work hard to make sure we have the people with the right skills in place so we can progress at the rate we need.
“That’s the same for the initial jobs in the very early days of construction, but also decades and decades of future skills for the generations that haven’t even been born yet, but whose families can stay in the region and contribute to its success.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity and now it’s for industry to work with the educational providers to be really clear about what our needs are going to be so that the education structure can react in time, draw the right number of people in and put the right training in place across every demographic.
“It’s essential that we have a greater level of diversity for every job we create so that parents can think about what their children could do in this exciting new future, regardless of gender, race and socio-economic background.”
Andy is bringing all his experience into the national picture as well, working closely with the Government as a member of the Green Jobs Delivery Group to identify the future skills needed in a low-carbon economy and then mapping a route to them using every possible element of the national skills infrastructure.
The country hasn’t seen this intensity of new industry being developed for a generation, so early adopters need to be brave and enthusiastic, inspired and motivated by schools and parents who recognise what the future is going to look like.
The seeds are being sown, and Andy Lane says there will be more and more signs that his infrastructure plans are starting to grow.
For bp as an organisation, this is also a vital mission that is being led by belief that it will happen and an ambition to make the difference the region and the planet needs.
“We are all totally committed believers that hydrogen is a really important part of an energy transition for industry as well as heavy vehicles, trucks, buses, trains and much more,” he tells me.
“The power station project is important for making sure the lights don’t go out in the UK when the wind isn’t blowing or when the sun isn’t shining, because the UK’s power mix is getting quite complicated now.
“Our business is evolving in response to that and changing from one that has historically relied on oil and gas and refining and petrol to one that that will be low carbon. It creates fantastic opportunities for us as a business because the North Sea is a mature province from an oil and gas perspective, so that will gradually get smaller over time. “On the other hand, we’ve got a big business with offshore wind, which eventually I think will be trying to integrate with our business connecting up hydrogen production and offshore wind. This is the future that bp is a part of.”
bp’s plans are clear, and because of people like Andy, there is now a local viewpoint on global projects and an inspiring take on where it could all lead.
“I used to work offshore earlier in my career and always heard accents from Scotland and South Wales because that’s where a lot of the workers were alongside the heavy industries.
“Wouldn’t it be great ten years down the road if everywhere you went that was a core place for hydrogen, what you heard was a Teesside accent? That’s what is on offer here – making Teesside a global centre of knowledge and expertise with a history in the hydrogen business.
“We already get people visiting the region from places like China, Japan and Brazil, looking at what we’re doing and saying ‘what’s the secret sauce? Tell me what the ingredient is so I can go and do it back home’.
“It’s never quite as simple as that, of course, but that sort of reputation and focus is what goes with the opportunity here.”
The Teesside engine is being hand-built piece by piece, and soon someone will be able to turn the key. Then it can roar for generations.
It’s a recognisable trademark of bp globally that when they announce major investments – ones that have the potential to change a region for generations – they soon move away from the spreadsheets and databases and make it personal.
Investors already know what NZT Power, H2Teesside and HyGreen mean for Teesside and decarbonization in the UK, but as well as the stats and sums, this scale of work needs character and empathy so that the future employees, the people who will educate and train them and the people living alongside such tumultuous change understand what is happening and what it can bring for them and their families.
So how bp builds its teams is becoming increasingly important as the long-term success of globally-significant deals is seen through the eyes of people and businesses in towns like Redcar and Darlington and how they engage with the projects.
The company has a vast resource of experience to draw on, people who are among the best there is, who know how bp ticks and are passionate about what the company’s success could mean for us all.
Andy Lane is a keystone presence in bp’sTeesside projects, having worked on them since 2018. He has worked as the managing director of Northern Endurance Parternership – a joint venture between bp, Equinor and TotalEnergies – which is developing the key CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure which will serve a wide range of carbon emitting projects across Teesside and the Humber. He has just been named as the VP for Hydrogen and CCUS for the UK, making him one of the most influential people in the Carbon Capture world.
“I feel I know this region and certainly the projects particularly well now,” he tells me.
“I’ve been involved for about five years since what originally started as the Net Zero Teesside project, which was the power station and the carbon transportation pipeline and offshore storage.
“That then grew to become the East Coast Cluster, with industrial clusters in Teesside and Humberside linked up to make a much bigger opportunity in line with what the Government was trying to achieve.
“As that played through, my role became quite focused on the infrastructure and connecting all the moving parts for decarbonisation. Now, at the end of a long process, we’ve got much more clarity on what the initial projects are going to be.
“There has been a huge vote of confidence in Teesside, with two bp led East Coast Cluster projects – NZT Power and H2 Teesside – being selected by the UK Government as part of the track 1 cluster sequencing process, and HyGreen recently being selected by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to progress to the next stage of negotiations in its first funding round. “So my role is being changed and expanded to focus on those projects and how the Teesside-related activity can be integrated. That means linking the carbon pipeline being developed by the NEP, and the NZT Power station and also H2Teesside (which will produce blue hydrogen by taking natural gas, breaking it into its parts, storing the carbon that’s produced and leaving blue hydrogen).
“The final piece of the jigsaw is that we have now been selected by the government for the HyGreen Teesside project, which will be an electrolytic way of producing hydrogen by using renewable power to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.”
Last month HyGreen Teesside was backed by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero to progress to the next stage of negotiations in its first funding round for green hydrogen projects, which followed the March announcement that it had been shortlisted for two programmes intended to kickstart the low carbon hydrogen economy across the UK.
Andy’s way of breaking down these multi-billion pound projects – we now have a pipeline, a power station and two different types of hydrogen in the same place at the same time – means the fifth ‘project’ he has to run is a pipeline of information and communication.
He knows that you don’t leave it on the page and hope people find it and understand it – you translate and communicate every step of the way.
“That is about protecting existing businesses and the jobs and lifestyles that go with that and then building new businesses on top of that and then beyond that, creating an environment where you’ve got clean power, the ability to take carbon away, and then hydrogen available to you,” he says.
“All of that attracts new businesses and we’re already getting people showing up with new opportunities that link together those things.
“I find that goal fantastically motivating because at the end of it all, when plants are running and carbon is being captured, there are thousands of new jobs that we could help create alongside the hundreds of people who will be operating these facilities for decades to come.
“A big part of the jobs boost we want to bring here is that it can’t just be about young people who are at school that we want to get into apprenticeships and then into the workforce. It has to also be for people who are in a workforce already, and the opportunities it creates for them at a national level, a regional level and then a genuinely local level.
“I can help that happen by delivering the best from our partner group, stakeholders, the supply chain, central government and local government, the regulators and all of the different agencies we will be working with. “There is significant money to be spent by bp and its partners and the banks that support us, so there are levels of complexity there which means a lot of integration. But for me that just means it is exciting – I can really get my hands on it all and bring it together for Teesside.
“These are the first few steps and there will be many others over time that will connect, but this is the gateway and there is strong support for it. Central government is well connected to the different partners involved in each one of those projects and everyone – including the people of Teesside – wants to see progress.
“We are driving this ahead as fast as we can to move energy transition in the UK forward, and focus that movement on Teesside as it genuinely leads the way when it comes to decarbonisation.
“That makes the region a great location to do business and an important place to pioneer this technology, which is so vital for the nation.”
So that’s the plan, delivered with a blend of intelligence, passion, foresight and innovation – but where are the buildings and the recruitment ads? When does the concrete start being poured and the steel start going up?
“I know you can’t yet step out and look over a fence to see it all being built, but I still want people to be excited by the creation of new projects that not only serve a national mission to reduce carbon, but more importantly, really serve a local need,” he says.
“It’s a little difficult to see from the road but there’s actually a lot of activity going on at the site already.
“The Teesworks landowner is remediating the site ready for construction to start and we’ve all seen coverage of the old steelworks coming down – with all the history that has for the region. It’s a sad moment of change for one industry, but there is positivity there as well because what will go back up in its place will last for another 50 years as the next generation of energy production.
“But first the site owner is cleaning it up before we can grow our presence and continue the construction activity that we have started, with earthmovers, diggers and trucks already working for us.
“I would expect construction to be starting third or fourth quarter next year, so a little bit over a year from now, which is where we always expected to be with groundworks and foundations that we need to put down first before we start building things from there.”
One essential element already in place is the £3.2 million Clean Energy Education Hub at Redcar and Cleveland College which will specifically focus on giving people the skills to meet the demands of the growing renewable and low carbon sector.
bp has provided £50,000 in funding for the development, backed 21 paid engineering scholarships for school leavers starting at the college this month and committed to help the hub reach into primary and secondary schools to inspire young people across Teesside to pursue careers in clean energy.
Andy says: “The Hub is an amazing place, and now we need to work hard to make sure we have the people with the right skills in place so we can progress at the rate we need.
“That’s the same for the initial jobs in the very early days of construction, but also decades and decades of future skills for the generations that haven’t even been born yet, but whose families can stay in the region and contribute to its success.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity and now it’s for industry to work with the educational providers to be really clear about what our needs are going to be so that the education structure can react in time, draw the right number of people in and put the right training in place across every demographic.
“It’s essential that we have a greater level of diversity for every job we create so that parents can think about what their children could do in this exciting new future, regardless of gender, race and socio-economic background.”
Andy is bringing all his experience into the national picture as well, working closely with the Government as a member of the Green Jobs Delivery Group to identify the future skills needed in a low-carbon economy and then mapping a route to them using every possible element of the national skills infrastructure.
The country hasn’t seen this intensity of new industry being developed for a generation, so early adopters need to be brave and enthusiastic, inspired and motivated by schools and parents who recognise what the future is going to look like.
The seeds are being sown, and Andy Lane says there will be more and more signs that his infrastructure plans are starting to grow.
For bp as an organisation, this is also a vital mission that is being led by belief that it will happen and an ambition to make the difference the region and the planet needs.
“We are all totally committed believers that hydrogen is a really important part of an energy transition for industry as well as heavy vehicles, trucks, buses, trains and much more,” he tells me.
“The power station project is important for making sure the lights don’t go out in the UK when the wind isn’t blowing or when the sun isn’t shining, because the UK’s power mix is getting quite complicated now.
“Our business is evolving in response to that and changing from one that has historically relied on oil and gas and refining and petrol to one that that will be low carbon. It creates fantastic opportunities for us as a business because the North Sea is a mature province from an oil and gas perspective, so that will gradually get smaller over time. “On the other hand, we’ve got a big business with offshore wind, which eventually I think will be trying to integrate with our business connecting up hydrogen production and offshore wind. This is the future that bp is a part of.”
bp’s plans are clear, and because of people like Andy, there is now a local viewpoint on global projects and an inspiring take on where it could all lead.
“I used to work offshore earlier in my career and always heard accents from Scotland and South Wales because that’s where a lot of the workers were alongside the heavy industries.
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“Wouldn’t it be great ten years down the road if everywhere you went that was a core place for hydrogen, what you heard was a Teesside accent? That’s what is on offer here – making Teesside a global centre of knowledge and expertise with a history in the hydrogen business.
“We already get people visiting the region from places like China, Japan and Brazil, looking at what we’re doing and saying ‘what’s the secret sauce? Tell me what the ingredient is so I can go and do it back home’.
“It’s never quite as simple as that, of course, but that sort of reputation and focus is what goes with the opportunity here.”
The Teesside engine is being hand-built piece by piece, and soon someone will be able to turn the key. Then it can roar for generations.
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