British oil and gas giant BP on Thursday acquired 50% stakes in two US offshore wind developments from Norway’s Equinor in a $1.1 billion deal, marking the company’s first entry to the offshore wind market. The agreement includes the Beacon Wind project off Massachusetts and the Empire Wind project off New York with a combined generation capacity of up to 4.4 GW.
BP has already had around 1.7 GW of onshore wind power capacity in the US. However, the company had long refrained from embarking on the offshore wind sector. The deal with Equinor is expected to close in early 2021 and also includes an agreement to develop other offshore wind projects in the US. The agreement is viewed as part of BP’s mission to increase its renewable power generation capacity by 20 fold to 50 GW in the 2030s.
