Statoil seeks North East suppliers for offshore wind scheme

Norwegian state owned energy company, Statoil, has been explaining its investment plans for the development of the Dogger Bank offshore wind project, 80 miles of the North East coast. With a potential spend of around £13bn on the project, the opportunity for regional businesses is significant with Statoil aiming to achieve 50% input on this development from UK suppliers.

The main direct contracting opportunity will be for its ‘Tier One’ contractors with subcontractors working through them. Mr Brustad, Vice President Renewables Offshore Wind at Statoil said: "Our Dogger Bank scheme will present some major local opportunities for the supply chain. One of our problems is identifying the SME’s who can help us achieve this project. Our aim is to increase the amount of local content on this development, and the opportunities for the North East supply chain are huge."

The Dogger Bank development will consist of four distinct phases: Creyke Beck A & B and Teesside A & B. Each of these will consist of an investment of between £3bn – 3.4bn delivering a total new electricity capacity of almost 5GW, enough to power 2.5m homes. Mr Brustad said the technological know-how of the North East supply chain is vital to achieving the 50% UK content target and is confident they can do so.

While the planning process for the Dogger Bank development is complete it still needs to win a Contract for Difference (CfD). Earlier this year the Government said it would provide further support for renewable electricity through the CfD scheme at a new auction later this year. Although the soundings are favourable for Statoil and other contractors, the UK currently has an installed capacity of 6GW and the Government want to see this rise to 10GW by 2020. The Government also want to see cost reductions with the aim of eventually bringing the price consumers pay to less than £100 per MW/h.

For more information, help or advice please contact Andrew Davison on 0191 211 7950 or email [email protected].