Equinor forges link with Chinese yard CIMC Raffles in Asia offshore wind push

Norwegian energy giant Equinor and Chinese yard CIMC Raffles have signed a strategic co-operation agreement to mutually develop local offshore wind projects in Shandong province as well as other renewables projects in the Asian nation.

The pair put pen to paper on the pact on Thursday, to coincide with a visit to CIMC Raffles in Yantai by Norwegian Ambassador to China, Signe Brudeset, which was attended by video link by Equinor's executive vice president for New Energy Solutions, Pål Eitrheim.

“We are looking forward to co-operating with CIMC Raffles — a strong, local industrial partner in this area — to jointly mature and develop early and at-scale offshore wind projects in the Shandong province,” he said.

He added that Equinor has a clear target to increase its installed renewable energy capacity thirty-fold by 2035.

“We are stepping up to become a global offshore wind major, and to deliver on our strategy we continue to assess different business opportunities globally,” he said.

China has set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2060. The country aims to become the world’s largest offshore wind market and has an ambition to install over 12GW by 2020 and 40GW to 65GW by 2030.

Shandong province plans to allocate a total of 23GW of offshore wind projects by 2025.

“The agreement with CIMC Raffles has the potential to support Equinor’s strategy to become a global offshore wind major by building scale in core areas and securing growth options in attractive markets for offshore wind,” the Equinor spokesman said.

CIMC Raffles said the agreement “symbolised the formation of [a] close partnership between the two companies”, adding, “in the future, with respective advantages, both parties will conduct strategic and in-depth co-operation on China offshore wind and other low-carbon energy fields.”