Equinor to develop US$600 million floating offshore wind farm to power oil and gas platforms in the North Sea

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Equinor has announced plans to power the Gullfaks and Snorre fields in the North Sea with an 88 MW floating offshore wind farm.

This follows an extensive study evaluating which oil and gas installations on the Norwegian continental shelf are suited for power supply from a floating offshore wind farm, and could be the first time an offshore wind farm is directly connected to oil and gas platforms.

The solution to be further explored is a wind farm consisting of 11 wind turbines based on Equinor’s floating offshore wind concept, Hywind. The 8 MW turbines are estimated to meet about 35% of the annual power demand of the five Snorre A and B, and Gullfaks A, B and C platforms. In periods of higher wind speed this percentage will be significantly higher.

The project forecasts a reduction of CO₂ emissions by more than 200,000 tonnes per year, equivalent to the emissions from 100,000 cars. This will make a considerable contribution to the industry’s ambition to reduce CO₂ emissions on the Norwegian continental shelf by 2.5 million tonnes per year from 2020 to 2030.

The preliminary capital and development expenditures of the project amount to around NOK5 billion (US$600.25 million), and the project aims at further cost reductions. The industry’s NOx fund is has confirmed that it will provide up to NOK566 million (US$67.9 million) in investment support for the project.

The seven companies operating in the Snorre and Gullfaks fields, located in the Tampen area of the northern North Sea will now mature the project towards a possible investment decision in 2019. The partners have now made a concept choice for the offshore wind project, but optimisation of the technical solutions and further cost reductions are required before the investment decision can be made.

In addition, the Snorre and Gullfaks partners have applied for support from the Norwegian government through the Ministry of Climate and Environment's Enova financing scheme, which supports full-scale innovative energy and climate projects that contribute to the creation of a low emission society.

Equinor's pilot floating offshore wind farm, Hywind, commenced commercial operations in October 2017. It is located off the coast of north-east Scotland and consists of five 6 MW wind turbines installed on floating structures.