Capturing opportunities for hydrogen and CCUS: Ben’s story

Considering the driving force behind his career so far, Ben reflects:

And opportunities to do this in his 8 years with bp have come from across the business. Beginning his career in sub-surface, working in Angola, Ben shifted his focus to developing digital solutions, before joining bp’s growing hydrogen and carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) business. Although Ben admits he somewhat fell into working in hydrogen and CCUS three and half years ago, he is hugely excited about their potential to decarbonize a range of sectors – such as heavy industry and transport. “Climate change is the biggest challenge of our time and I am passionate about harnessing hydrogen and CCUS to help find a solution to it”, Ben says. 

Developing decarbonisation projects 

As a commercial developer, Ben’s role is focussed on finding and developing new project opportunities for bp across the world.

With both technologies relatively nascent in their development, bp is engaging and working with a range of partners to harness their potential and create a real market for hydrogen and CCUS. “A lot of my time is spent working with different stakeholders, both internal and external”, Ben explains. “I find it particularly interesting to speak to third parties, including governments and other companies, to progress projects forward.” In the UK, for example, Ben is working with a range of stakeholders to develop bp’s planned hydrogen and CCUS projects in Teesside, in the North-East of England. 

 And the scale of the opportunities that bp is pursuing is also important for Ben.

An exciting, growing team 

To drive forward exciting projects in hydrogen and CCUS, Ben realises a whole range of skills and backgrounds will be needed. Although many of his team are relatively new to the sector, he highlights the transferable skills that are essential for success.

With bp’s hydrogen and CCUS business growing rapidly, Ben feels energised by the positive feeling in the team: