Offshore staff
LONDON – bp and Equinor have completed the formation of their strategic US offshore wind partnership.
This includes bp’s $1.1-billion purchase from Equinor of a 50% interest in two major lease areas off the US East Coast. The new partnership is expected to develop up to 4.4 GW through two projects – Empire Wind and Beacon Wind – and together pursue further growth in the US offshore wind market.
The completion of the partnership follows the recent success of the Empire Wind 2 and Beacon Wind 1 projects in being selected to provide New York state with 2.5 GW of power. This is the biggest US offshore wind award to date, bp said. Together with the existing award to supply 816 MW from the Empire Wind 1 development, this represents a total commitment to provide 3.3 GW of renewable offshore wind energy to the state of New York.
The execution of the procurement award is subject to the successful negotiation of a purchase and sale agreement with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.
Dev Sanyal, bp’s executive vice president of gas and low carbon energy, said: “We see significant opportunities by rapidly growing bp’s offshore wind business, making a major contribution to our strategic goals and developing assets that will provide long-term, stable returns.”
The Empire Wind lease area, awarded to Equinor in 2016, is 15-30 mi (24-48 km) southeast of Long Island and has a total area of 80,000 acres (125 sq mi). Its two phases of development have a potential generation capacity of 2 GW.
The Beacon Wind lease area covers a total area of 128,000 acres (200 sq mi), about 20 mi (32 km) south of Nantucket and 60 mi (97 km) east of Montauk Point. When fully developed its two phases are expected to have a total generating capacity of 2.4 GW.
According to bp, the staffing levels for the projects will evolve over time so that, once in operation, they will be staffed equally from both companies.
bp said it plans to become an integrated energy company. The company aims to grow its net renewable generating capacity from 2.5 GW in 2019 to 20 GW by 2025 and to around 50 GW by 2030. Also, the company said it aims to increase annual low carbon investment 10-fold by 2030 to around $5 billion a year.
01/29/2021
