Meet BHP’s sustainable shipping pioneer

For the third time, BHP’s Rashpal Bhatti has been named in Lloyd’s List’s One Hundred People, an annual assessment of the most influential people in the global shipping industry.

After nine years as BHP’s vice president of maritime and supply chain excellence, Bhatti recently took on the role of group procurement officer, and was ranked 50th in the top 100 list, up from 69th a year prior.

Bhatti achieved multiple industry and world-first decarbonisation initiatives during his time at BHP Maritime. including BHP’s expression of interest for an ammonia value chain, which the company believes to be the first in the world.

Launched in 2023, the initiative sees ammonia assessed as a low-to-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fuel for maritime.

“We are confident that low-to-zero greenhouse gas emissions ammonia will play a very significant role in the decarbonisation of the shipping industry,” Bhatti said. “We have no doubt that other charterers and organisations would look to ammonia as a strong step towards net zero.”

BHP aims to use low-to-zero GHG emission ammonia as a marine fuel within this decade, initially supporting a green corridor for the company’s well-established iron ore trade route between Western Australia and China.

Decarbonisation and sustainability are a key pillar of BHP Maritime’s strategy, with a target to achieve net zero by 2050 for the GHG emissions from all shipping of BHP products.

In the 2023–24 financial year (FY24), BHP moved about 300 million tonnes of iron ore, coal and copper over some 1500 voyages, positioning the company as one of the world’s largest dry bulk charterers.

The use of ammonia accompanies other BHP efforts to reduce GHG emissions.

Together with partners Pan Pacific Copper and Norsepower, July 2024 saw a rotor sail onboard retrofitted on the M/V Koryu, reducing GHG emissions by leveraging wind-assisted propulsion technology when wind conditions are favourable across the Chile–Japan trade route.