Equinor Awards Norwegian Wind Farm Contracts

Norwegian state producer Equinor signed October 31 five contracts totalling around Nkr 3.3bn ($360mn) for the Hywind Tampen wind farm development. The winners were Kvaerner, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, JDR Cable System and Subsea 7. The array will have a total capacity of 88 MW and it will be equipped with 11 SG 8.0-167 DD turbines, said Siemens Gamesa.

The electricity output will go to the Gullfaks and Snorre offshore platforms, replacing gas turbines and so reducing their carbon footprint.

Equinor said the contracts "prove that the oil and gas industry is also competitive for renewables projects. The awarded contracts will generate considerable spin-offs in Norway."

Equinor will be responsible for operation and maintenance of the wind farm. Maintenance of the wind turbines will be carried out by Siemens Gamesa’s Norwegian service organisation through its 5-year contract regarding the wind turbine delivery.

The oil and gas platforms will be the first ever powered by a floating offshore wind farm, Equinor said. The emissions from the Gullfaks and Snorre fields will be reduced by more than 200,000 metric tons/year.

The Hywind Tampen investment will be close to Nkr 5bn. All contracts are subject to final approval of the plan for development and operation (PDO) by Norwegian authorities. The wind farm is scheduled to start production at the end of 2022.

The partners in Gullfaks licence are Equinor (51%), Petoro (30%) and Austrian OMV (19%), The partners in Snorre  are Equinor (33.3%), Petoro (30%), ExxonMobil (17.5%), Idemitsu (9.6%), Wintershall DEA (8.6%), and Var Energi (1.1%).