Nov joins North Sea oil mega project to reduce emissions

The £10 billion (US $13.84 billion) Cerulean Winds project has named maritime giant NOV as the first of its delivery partners for the fabrication of its 200-turbine floating wind and hydrogen development off the coast of Scotland; to reduce gas emissions by half.

Under this arrangement NOV would become the exclusive provider of floating and mooring systems in support  of the venture; that has the capacity to decarbonise by more than halving the 18 million tonnes of CO2 they currently produce by 2025.

"Targets set out in the recently published North Sea Transition Deal call for a reduction in offshore emissions by 10 percent by 2025 and 25 percent by 2027. To achieve that, preparatory work must begin now if those targets are to be met. Failure to do so undermines the objectives of the deal," said the company in a statement.

Cerulean Winds said it has submitted a formal request to Marine Scotland for seabed leases, explaining that the leases must be granted by Q3 in 2021 to target financial close in Q1 2022 and to begin construction to be in place by 2024-2026.

“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 Dan Jackson, Director of Cerulean Winds.

The company said that the proposed development involves over 200 of the largest floating turbines at sites West of Shetland and in the Central North Sea with 3GW of capacity.