Equinor plans to power oil and gas fields via new 88-MW floating wind farm

Norwegian group Equinor ASA (NYSE:EQNR), formerly Statoil, plans to build a new floating wind farm of 88 MW in order to supply power to the Gullfaks and Snorre oil and gas fields in the northern North Sea.

Equinor and its partners at the fields have made a concept choice for the project after the company conducted an extensive study to evaluate which oil and gas installations on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) are suited for offshore wind power supply. That study has brought forward the Snorre and Gullfaks fields in the Tampen area, Equinor said in a statement today.

The so-called Hywind Tampen project envisages installing 11 units of the 8-MW Hywind floating wind turbines at a total cost of NOK 5 billion (USD 600m/EUR 514m). The industry’s NOx fund has confirmed that it will provide up to NOK 566 million in investment support for the project. At the same time, Snorre and Gullfaks partners have applied for financial support under a programme of Norwegian government enterprise Enova.

Equinor noted that an investment decision could be made next year.

The 11 Hywind turbines are expected to produce enough power to meet some 35% of the annual power consumption of the Snorre A and B, and Gullfaks A, B and C platforms.

“The Tampen project 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,” commented Arne Sigve Nylund, Equinor’s executive vice president for Development and Production Norway.

(NOK 1.0 = USD 0.120/EUR 0.103)

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