Norwegian energy company Equinor has entered into an agreement with oil major BP, creating a strategic partnership in offshore wind in the US covering both current and potential future projects.
Under the agreement, Equinor will sell to BP 50% non-operated interests in the Empire Wind and Beacon Wind assets on the US east coast for a total consideration before adjustments of USD 1.1 billion.
The transaction marks the first step in the partnership, where Equinor will remain the operator in the development, construction and operations phase for both assets with secondment participation from BP.
Currently, Equinor holds a 100% interest in both the Empire Wind lease, located off the coast of New York State, and the Beacon Wind lease, located off the Massachusetts coast.
The transaction is in line with Equinor’s renewable strategy to access attractive acreage early and at scale, mature projects, and capture value by de-risking high equity ownership positions. The company will remain the operator of the projects in these leases through the development, construction and operations phases and probably the wind farms will be equally staffed after a period of time.
Our partnership underlines both companies’ strong commitment to accelerate the energy transition and combining our strengths will enable us to grow a profitable offshore wind business together in the US,
…says Equinor CEO, Eldar Sætre.
Through this partnership, Equinor and BP will consider future joint opportunities in the US for both bottom-fixed and floating offshore wind and will leverage relevant expertise to jointly grow scale.
As the partnership develops, both companies hope to expand this cooperation further in a market that is to grow to between 600 and 800 GW globally by 2050.
Equinor has already set ambitions to grow its renewables capacity to 4 to 6 GW by 2026 and 12 to 16 GW by 2035, and has recently announced its expectation to accelerate these ambitions.
BP’s acquisition of the interests in Empire Wind and Beacon Wind has an effective date of 1 January 2020 and is to close in early 2021, subject to customary conditions.
