Oil boss defends big firms on renewables commitment

The size of the prize in floating offshore wind is “immense” and should involve the big oil and gas majors, according to the renewables boss of Norwegian energy giant Equinor.

Stephen Bull, the company’s vice-president for wind and low carbon development, said his firm’s plans to power oil and gas fields with floating wind could be a “huge opportunity” to decarbonise the North Sea.

However, he also hit out at those who criticise big North Sea oil and gas firms looking to enter the renewables sector.

He said: “Those people should really ask themselves why they are doing that.”

He admitted “occasionally there can be a little bit of tension” between the oil and gas and the renewable energy sector, but he assured the audience yesterday that Equinor, Shell, BP and Total take the energy transition “extremely seriously”.

He added: “This is a fundamental moment for the energy transition.

“Integrating renewables with oil and gas is a central part of this and the know-how, the muscle, the global supply chain and the money they have can actually make this work.

“If you are a champion of the energy transition and reducing CO2, then you should be cheering on some of the major oil and gas companies in that direction.”

Equinor is pushing to make the technology commercial while also looking at whether oil and gas assets can be powered by floating wind in Norway.

It has commissioned the 88MW Hywind Tampen wind farm, which aims to cut carbon emissions at Norway’s Snorre and Gullfaks fields by 200,000 tonnes by powering the installations.

The 11-turbine project is a more than £400m investment by Equinor.

Mr Bull described the project as “incredibly important” for Equinor and the energy transition.

He said: “We want to use this example so that it could potentially market floating offshore wind linked to oil and gas globally.

“This is potentially a market in itself.”