BP has bought Macquarie's 15.25 percent stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub, one of the largest green hydrogen projects proposed anywhere. The price has not been disclosed. The purchase takes BP past 60 percent of a project it first bought into less than two years earlier, and Macquarie leaves the project entirely.
Key takeaways
- Enerdatics understands that on 27 February 2024 BP acquired a 15.25 percent stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH) in Western Australia from Macquarie, which exited the project; the deal value has not been disclosed.
- The Macquarie purchase raised BP's equity stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub from 48.32 percent to 63.57 percent, with the remainder held by original developers InterContinental Energy (26.39 percent) and CWP Global (10.04 percent).
- BP first agreed to buy a 40.5 percent stake in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub in June 2022 and later added 7.82 percent through purchases from InterContinental Energy and CWP Global.
- The Australian Renewable Energy Hub is planned as 26 GW of solar and wind with 14 GW of electrolyser capacity on a 6,500 square kilometre site in the Pilbara, producing 1.6 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen or 9 million tonnes of green ammonia a year.
- The Australian Renewable Energy Hub has secured its environmental permits and is expected to produce its first green ammonia by late 2027 and begin exports in 2029, mainly to South Korea and Japan.
How did BP build its majority in three steps?
By buying from each of the three original partners in turn. When BP agreed to take 40.5 percent in June 2022, the remaining shares were split between InterContinental Energy at 26.4 percent, CWP at 17.8 percent and Macquarie at 15.3 percent. BP's ownership took effect from 1 July 2022, and the purchase completed in December that year.
The second step added 7.82 percent through purchases from InterContinental Energy and CWP Global, taking BP to 48.32 percent. The two Enerdatics records together show where most of that came from. InterContinental Energy's holding barely moved, from 26.4 percent to 26.39 percent. CWP Global's fell from 17.8 percent to 10.04 percent. CWP was reshaping its own hydrogen business over the same period: in June 2023, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners invested in CWP's green hydrogen business, a deal for which Enerdatics records no disclosed value either.
The third step is this deal. Macquarie's 15.25 percent takes BP to 63.57 percent. With it, BP holds a clear majority, and the project now has three owners instead of four.
Why does the project look so different from the one first proposed?
Because it has been redesigned twice, and each time it grew. InterContinental Energy and CWP Global launched it in 2017 to send 6 GW of emissions-free power to Indonesia through a subsea cable. When Macquarie joined in 2019, the capacity doubled so the project could also sell power into the Pilbara region.
The size then doubled again, to the current 26 GW of solar panels and wind turbines, and the purpose changed. The plan to supply Indonesia was dropped. The power is now meant to run 14 GW of electrolysers making green hydrogen, much of it converted to green ammonia for export. The project even changed its name. When BP first bought in, Enerdatics recorded it as the Asian Renewable Energy Hub.
An electrolyser splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity. Green ammonia is ammonia made from that hydrogen, and it is easier to ship than hydrogen itself. That is why an export project of this kind plans to sell ammonia to buyers in South Korea and Japan, rather than hydrogen gas.
What does BP get for taking control?
It gets the deciding say over a project whose timetable is now set. The hub has secured its environmental permits. First green ammonia is expected by late 2027 and exports in 2029. Beyond export, the hydrogen is intended to help decarbonise mining operations in the Pilbara and could power the ships that carry iron ore out of the region.
The scale is the point. The project is expected to cut around 17 million tonnes of carbon a year at full capacity, or about 0.5 gigatonnes over its life. A stake of that size gives BP a position in Australian hydrogen exports that would be hard to build from scratch.
It also leaves BP carrying more of the cost. A majority owner in a project of this size would normally be expected to fund a majority share of its development. Macquarie's exit means one fewer partner to share that bill.
Enerdatics records 28 hydrogen transactions in Australia announced since the start of 2022. Only five disclose a value, and the largest of those is $29.8 million, a funding round for the electrolyser company Hysata in 2022. Fourteen of the 28 are partnerships or joint ventures rather than purchases. Neither of BP's two AREH transactions, the 40.5 percent stake in 2022 or the 15.25 percent in 2024, has a disclosed price, so the market value of a project of this scale remains unpublished.
What does the deal signal for Australian green hydrogen?
It shows consolidation around one deep-pocketed owner rather than a spread of partners. Early developers such as CWP Global and financial investors such as Macquarie helped carry the project to the point of permits. BP is the one taking it from there. The same pattern appears elsewhere in hydrogen, where oil and gas majors have stepped into projects others started, as Chevron did when it took 78 percent of Utah's ACES hydrogen project.
It also matches another BP move. Three months before the AREH deal, BP agreed to buy the half of Lightsource bp it did not already own. Control, in both cases, came from buying out a partner.
What remains open is price. With no value disclosed on either stake, there is no public benchmark for what a permitted, multi-gigawatt Australian hydrogen export project is worth. The first green ammonia, expected in late 2027, will be the first real test of whether that value holds.
Frequently asked questions
What stake does BP now hold in the Australian Renewable Energy Hub? BP holds 63.57 percent after buying Macquarie's 15.25 percent in February 2024. InterContinental Energy holds 26.39 percent and CWP Global 10.04 percent.
How much did BP pay Macquarie for its AREH stake? The deal value has not been disclosed, and neither has the price of BP's original 40.5 percent stake in 2022.
When will the Australian Renewable Energy Hub start producing? First green ammonia is expected by late 2027, with exports beginning in 2029, mainly to South Korea and Japan.
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