Developers Flotation Energy and Vargronn have teamed up to enter Scotland’s pioneering leasing round to electrify North Sea oil and gas production using floating wind power.
The partners claim they between them bring a strong set of credentials from both renewables and offshore hydrocarbons to the Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) round, which aims to set a new benchmark globally for linking green power with fossil fuel production assets.
Norway-based Vargronn is an offshore wind joint venture between Plenitude, the renewables arm of Italian oil & gas group Eni and Norwegian energy investor HitecVision. Flotation Energy has rapidly emerged as an ambitious global player building on its experience in its home market of Scotland, where it has already helped switch on the Kincardine floating project that is currently the world’s largest operating array at 50MW.
Olav Hetland, CEO of Vargronn, said: “Vargronn provides Norwegian offshore competence, offshore wind experience, financial expertise and strength to the consortium, also leveraging on our shareholders Eni and HitecVision. Flotation Energy has an established local position in Scotland, entrepreneurial drive and experience from developing Kincardine.”
Lord Nicol Stephen, CEO of Flotation Energy, added: “As well as tackling climate change, these projects will lead to billions of pounds of investment and thousands of skilled jobs, securing Scotland’s leadership in floating offshore wind.”
Any excess power from projects resulting from a successful bid will be available for UK consumers, said the partners.
The INTOG leasing round, distinct from Scotland’s ScotWind auction, which awarded a potential 25GW of development seabed earlier this year, closes on 18 November.
Norwegian giant Equinor upped the ante for wind-powered oil & gas decarbonisation last month when it unveiled its 1GW Trollvind plan off Norway to power hydrocarbons fields at less than $100 per megawatt hour by 2027.
Vargronn in June dramatically raised its ambitions in the European offshore wind sector when it set a new goal to have 5GW installed or sanctioned by 2030 and announced a deal to take over the 20% share currently held by Eni in Dogger Bank – at 3.6GW the world’s largest project under construction.
