Why Are Oil Majors Investing In Offshore Wind?

Why Are Oil Majors Investing In Offshore Wind?

(Photo by Jens Büttner/picture alliance via Getty Images)



dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images

By Valentina Kretzschmar, Wood Mackenzie Vice President, Corporate Research



Offshore wind will play an important role in the Majors' plans to transform against the backdrop of the global energy transition.

Some of the European Majors, such as Equinor and Shell, have been on that road for several years. However, other European major oil companies have recently adopted radical shifts in strategic direction that will transform them over the coming decades.

Why are oil Majors attracted to offshore wind?

It's all about a change from big oil to big energy and expansion in renewable power, and offshore wind will be a huge part of that. Offshore wind is an obvious choice for the oil majors for several reasons.



Firstly, the offshore wind sector has large growth potential. We estimate that installed capacity in offshore wind will grow sixfold over the next decade to nearly 200 gigawatts (GW), and government targets are even higher than that. The ultimate potential of the sector is much bigger, and our figures indicate the total capacity of projects in the development pipeline