The sea is in Statoil’s blood. Set up in 1972 by the Norwegian government to capitalise on the then-emerging North Sea oil boom, the company has grown to become the largest offshore operator in the world, building up a global portfolio of assets that flowed almost two million barrels a day of crude last year.

For the past decade, however, as part of a long-view “high-value, low-carbon” strategy, Statoil has also been looking offshore with a different resource in mind — wind energy.