Energy major bp and Japanese ship operator NYK Line have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on future fuels and transportation solutions to help industrial sectors, including shipping, decarbonise.

For shipping, the companies will collaborate and identify opportunities to help transition from current marine fuels to alternatives such as LNG, biofuels, and methanol, and to develop future fuels such as ammonia and hydrogen. Getting this journey right will be critical to enabling the shipping industry to meet its long-term decarbonisation ambitions.

For other hard-to-abate industrial sectors, the two companies will also consider potential marine transportation and other solutions for carbon dioxide, and explore participation in the supply chains for ammonia and hydrogen to be used in heavy industry and power generation, to help those sectors to decarbonise.

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

William Lin, EVP regions, cities and solutions, bp, said, “bp and NYK Line have a combined experience of almost 250 years working in the shipping sector, strong existing relationships and a shared understanding of the need for the marine industry to decarbonise. By bringing together our technical expertise, understanding of the supply chain, and insights from our customers, I am confident that together we can do more to drive change at pace in hard-to-abate sectors.”

Akira Kono, Senior Managing Executive Officer-Chief Executive of Energy Division, NYK Line added, “We are very pleased to enter into a strategic partnership with bp. We look forward to developing even more valuable solutions in the field of decarbonisation. By combining bp’s technological expertise and worldwide network in integrated energy with NYK Line’s expertise and technology as one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics companies, we hope to become a leader in the decarbonisation of the shipping industry.”