Statoil Joins Statkraft to Add U.K. Offshore Wind-Power Project

Statoil ASA (STL), Norway’s biggest oil company, joined Statkraft AS to buy an offshore wind project from Warwick Energy Ltd., their third U.K. venture together.

Statoil will take a 70 percent share and Statkraft will own the rest of the Dudgeon project, which has government consent to install as much as 560 megawatts of turbines in the sea off Norfolk in eastern England, the oil producer said today in a statement on its website. Terms weren’t disclosed.

“Warwick Energy has successfully progressed the technical and commercial basis” for the wind farm, Statoil Vice President for Renewable Energy Siri Kindem said in the statement. “Statoil and Statkraft will now take this work forward.”

The U.K. has installed more offshore wind-power capacity than any other country. Statoil and Statkraft, seeking to take advantage of government incentives for clean-energy development, completed a 317-megawatt wind project off Norfolk last month, bringing Britain’s offshore capacity to more than 2.5 gigawatts.

The two companies are also collaborating with RWE AG (RWE) and SSE Plc (SSE) to get consent for the Dogger Bank wind farm, 120 kilometers (75 miles) off northeastern England. At a planned 2.4 gigawatts, it has the potential to be the world’s largest offshore wind project.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net