Offshore wind developers answer Scotland’s call for innovation, oil and gas decarbonisation

Crown Estate Scotland has received a total of 19 applications for its Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) offshore wind leasing process.  

This level of interest from industry demonstrates significant support for this exciting new opportunity, the Scottish seabed manager said.  

INTOG aims to help decarbonise the North Sea oil and gas sector by supporting the building of wind farm projects connected to oil and gas infrastructure (TOG) providing electricity, and reduce the carbon emissions associated with oil and gas production.

One of the aims is also to allow for the development of small-scale (IN) innovative offshore wind projects of 100 MW or less.  

Of the 19 applications, ten are for the Innovation part, while nine have been submitted for the TOG element.

These applications have been sited in those locations set out in the Scottish Government’s Initial Planning Framework.

Crown Estate Scotland will now assess the applications. The offer of Exclusivity Agreements for both IN and TOG projects is anticipated to be announced by the end of April 2023.

The INTOG leasing round will have three key stages: Exclusivity, Option Agreements, and Lease, according to the details published by Crown Estate Scotland earlier this year.

The selected projects will be assessed by Marine Scotland through their sectoral planning process and only projects included in the final plan can be awarded Option Agreements.

It is expected that up to 500 MW will be awarded to innovation projects and around 4 GW for projects looking to decarbonise oil and gas assets.

Several developers have revealed their plans to bid in this offshore wind leasing round over the past several months.

Last month, Simply Blue Group announced its partnership with Marine Power Systems (MPS) on a project proposal for the INTOG leasing round that involves six wind turbines deployed on the MPS floating platform, called PelaFlex, delivering a total of 100 MW.

Simply Blue Group has also applied with another project together with Subsea 7 and Ørsted, the 100 MW Salamander floating wind farm.

Vårgrønn and Flotation Energy have also teamed up to compete for seabed rights with a plan to generate renewable energy from offshore wind farms to enable the electrification and decarbonisation of offshore oil and gas installations in the North Sea, with any excess power to be made available to the UK consumers.

Earlier this year, Cerulean Winds revealed it would bid for four seabed lease sites with a combined capacity of 6 GW of floating wind to decarbonise the UK’s oil and gas sector.

In March this year, Norwegian company Havfram said it was in early talks with partners for the Scottish Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas seabed leasing round and is likely to be one of the applicants.

The same month, Aker Offshore Wind (now Mainstream Renewable Power) said it was looking at the Scottish oil & gas electrification tender as one of the opportunities for bidding.

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