WATCHING THE WORLD BP TAKES AIM AT A BROADER TARGET

Those who think it sad to see oil majors fighting retailers for food and drink sales (OGJ, Sept. 14, 1992, p. 19) may take comfort from a new contract unveiled by BP Energy Ltd. The company is to manage energy use at Ford Motor Co.'s Halewood factory in the U.K. The 346 acre site has thermal energy plant capacity amounting to 210,000 kw, equivalent to a town of about 20,000 homes.

Feb. 16, 1993

2 min read

Those who think it sad to see oil majors fighting retailers for food and drink sales (OGJ, Sept. 14, 1992, p. 19) may take comfort from a new contract unveiled by BP Energy Ltd.

The company is to manage energy use at Ford Motor Co.'s Halewood factory in the U.K. The 346 acre site has thermal energy plant capacity amounting to 210,000 kw, equivalent to a town of about 20,000 homes.

Ford spends more than 3.5 million ($5.2 million)/year on heating and process gas, 7 million ($10 million) on electricity, and 500,000 (5700,000) on water for Halewood. So BP effectively took on the whole energy sector.

"BP's brief is to convert fuel purchased by Ford into steam and heat in the most efficient way possible," said Simon Lloyd, business development manager at BP Energy.

One of the first tasks is to survey energy use at Halewood and recommend ways to improve efficiency. BP will report its findings in the first half of this year.

FUEL SWITCHING

Gas is supplied under an interruptible supply contract, so it is relatively cheap but likely to be cut off at peak demand periods. One of the survey's main purposes is to optimize fuel switching options.

The contract makes BP responsible for operating and maintaining hot water and steam boilers, demineralization plant, effluent plant, air compressors, water distribution systems, heating and ventilation plant, energy management systems, plant rooms, a 33 kv electricity substation and twenty 11 kv substations.

A similar project at East Lancashire Paper Mill Co. Ltd., Manchester, has BP operating and maintaining an 80,000 kw coal fired boiler plant, steam turbo-alternator, compressed air plant, and utilities.

UNIQUE POSITION

"As a fuels based company, BP is in a unique position to supply the contract energy market," Lloyd said.

BP Energy is targeting all sites in the U.K. with a thermal capacity greater than 200,000 kw. It reckons this sector uses energy costing more than 9 billion ($13 billion)/year.

"Now we are managing the entire energy system, Ford is free to concentrate resources on its core business of car production," said Nick Coleman, managing director of BP Energy.

But isn't BP also restructuring to concentrate on its core business-finding oil and gas and converting them into salable products?

"We remain in the group because we add value to the supply of hydrocarbons," Lloyd said.