NOV to be delivery partner for Cerulean Winds’ 3-GW floating wind plan in UK

Cerulean Winds, which recently floated a proposal for 200-turbine floating wind and hydrogen development in the UK, on Wednesday named marine equipment provider NOV as the first of its delivery partners.

NOV will be the exclusive provider of floating and mooring systems for the GBP-10-billion (USD 13.8bn/EUR 11.7bn) project.

Cerulean Winds, a green infrastructure developer set up by oil and gas entrepreneurs Dan Jackson and Mark Dixon, proposed the scheme a month ago, setting out plans for 3 GW of floating wind turbines at sites West of Shetland and in the Central North Sea that can electrify most of oil and gas assets in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS), with surplus power fed to onshore hydrogen plants.

According to Dixon, having NOV on board brings the scheme a step closer to reality.

“We have a number of Tier 1 delivery stakeholders signed up. We can’t disclose who they are at this stage, but they are some of the largest providers in the world, with the scale and capacity to deliver and we look forward to making further announcements over the coming months,” he said.

The company has submitted a formal request to Marine Scotland for seabed leases and urges these to be granted by the third quarter of 2021 so that it can aim to achieve financial close in the first quarter of 2022.

“If assets don’t reduce their CO2 emissions by the mid-2020s, increased emissions penalties through carbon taxes will see many North Sea fields become uneconomical and move them towards decommissioning by the end of the decade at the cost of thousands of jobs," said Jackson.

(GBP 1.0 = USD 1.383/EUR 1.165)

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