bp and EnBW sign lease for Joint Venture office in Edinburgh

bp and EnBW - the joint venture behind three major UK offshore wind developments - have signed a lease agreement for a new office in Edinburgh which will become home to their Morven project team.

The move builds on bp’s long-standing footprint in Scotland and will mark the first time EnBW has had a base in the country.

Richard Haydock, project director, offshore wind bp said: “bp has a long and proud history in Scotland through our oil and gas business headquartered in Aberdeen. We continue to see huge potential for Aberdeen which will become bp’s global operations and maintenance centre of excellence for offshore wind. The expansion of our footprint to Edinburgh for our Morven project not only reaffirms our commitment to Scotland where we’re investing in ports, shipbuilding, and skills, but provides another hub for bp and EnBW to build and strengthen our partnership.”

Alex Schneeweiß, project director, Morven offshore wind project EnBW said “The opening of the Morven Joint Venture office marks a “first” for EnBW in Scotland. We are delighted to come to Edinburgh as a further testament to our commitment. It is the ideal place with proximity to key stakeholders and partners, as well as a strong talent pool to further grow the bp & EnBW team to successfully deliver our Morven project.”

bp and EnBW, which are currently operating out of separate offices in Hamburg and Sunbury, have made significant commitments to Scotland as part of the Morven project.

Central to this is establishing a remote operating control centre in Aberdeen for their joint UK wind projects. bp has also pledged to make Aberdeen its global operations and maintenance centre of excellence for offshore wind.

The Edinburgh office is expected to house approximately 40 members of the project team.

The 4,795 square feet project office space in central Edinburgh is expected to open in mid-2023. It will locate the Morven team close to several key stakeholders, including the Port of Leith which was selected as marshalling port for the project last year.

bp and EnBW are partners in three UK offshore wind projects under development; Morgan and Mona in the Irish Sea, and Morven in the North Sea, east of Aberdeen.

These have a combined potential generating capacity of 5.9 gigawatts, sufficient to power the equivalent of approximately 6 million households, helping to achieve Scotland's target of 11GW and the UK's 50GW target for offshore wind power generation by 2030.