Offshore oil firm looks to offshore wind power

China's largest offshore oil producer, China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), is looking for international partners to cooperate on offshore wind development. Company president Fu Chengyu believes offshore wind power will become a prominent energy source for China over the next ten to 20 years. "We would like to work with countries from around the world on developing this," Fu says. "Right now, we have one core business of oil and gas, but in the future we hope to have three to five core businesses and that will include a focus on renewable energy. We want to develop wind power, biofuels and energy infrastructure construction within the next five to ten years." Speaking in April at the annual Bo'ao Forum for Asia, held in south China's Hainan Island, Fu said the company expects offshore wind to be a key business for CNOOC in the next 20-30 years. The company declines to elaborate on its plans or recent progress. Last year it cast a bid, unsuccessfully, for the first large scale offshore wind project in China, a 100 MW project off Shanghai now being developed by a consortium comprising China Guodian Power Corporation, Datang International Power Generation, China Nuclear Power Holding and Shanghai Green Power Group. According to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of China's State Council, CNOOC signed a research, development and design contract in April with Beijing Guodian Huabei Electric Power Engineering to install a demonstration wind turbine at an oilrig at the Suizhong offshore oil field. Electricity from the turbine would be transmitted via a five kilometre undersea power line to the oil field's closed grid system.