Addressing the Subsea Valley (SSV) conference in Oslo (4-6 April), Rummelhoff said: "The energy model of the future relies on a combination of technologies," adding that several billion euros would be invested in offshore wind over the next 25-30 years.
Statoil is involved in a number of offshore wind projects, including a recent lease request off Massachusetts in the US. The company’s R&D arm, Statoil Energy Ventures, has pledged to invest €200 million by 2025 in wind, solar and storage start-ups.
Norway’s oil and gas supply chain has largely steered clear of offshore wind, but since the price of crude oil plummeted to just over $30 a barrel in early 2016, the industry has been reassessing its long-term sustainability and financial viability.
The conference organiser, Subsea Valley, is a cluster of businesses located mainly in south-east Norway, that provide products and services to the subsea oil and gas sector.
But interest in offshore wind is growing fast, as demonstrated earlier this year by the merger of oil and gas network organisation Intsok with its renewable energy counterpart Intpow into a new joint body, Norwegian Energy Partners (Norwep).
Michael Borrell, senior vice present Europe & Central Asia for oil major Total, told the conference that the company was reviewing its earlier decision not to invest in wind energy, although he declined to provide further details.
