01 May 2012: Oil and Gas Companies See
Offshore Wind Potential in North Sea

An increasing number of oil service companies are working with renewable energy companies to develop offshore wind projects in the North Sea as the region’s fossil fuel resources dwindle and demand for clean energy rises. According to a report by Bloomberg News, companies such as Technip and Subsea 7 are seizing on the similarities between developing deepsea oil installations and building offshore wind platforms. For wind energy developers, as much as 25 percent of capital spending includes services that can be performed by oil and gas companies, said Jayesh Parmar, a UK-based consultant at Baringa Partners LLP. “The synergies available between offshore wind and oil and gas are most apparent in the North Sea,” Parmar said. “It makes sense here to be operating in both areas.” With numerous offshore wind projects planned, the European Wind Energy Association predicts that more than 446,000 people will work in the North Sea’s offshore wind sector by the end of the decade, twice the current workforce. Meanwhile, according to Bloomberg, oil production from Britain’s continental shelf has declined by more than 6 percent annually over the last two decades.