BP to strengthen offshore wind business in South Korea with JV

BP wind energy business

BP and Deep Wind Offshore have formed a joint venture to develop offshore wind business  in South Korea.

BP has acquired a 55 percent stake in Deep Wind Offshore’s early-stage offshore wind portfolio, which includes four projects across the Korean peninsula with a potential generating capacity of up to 6GW. BP did not reveal financial details of the joint venture with Norway-headquartered Deep Wind Offshore.

South Korea is targeting almost 22 percent of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2030 and is expected to become a leading offshore wind region.

The joint venture will see BP enter the South Korean offshore wind market through Deep Wind Offshore’s existing presence in the region. Today, BP has a 40-year history in the country, including sizeable oil and LNG trading activities and its Castrol lubricants business.

Matthias Bausenwein, BP’s senior vice president of offshore wind, said: “South Korea is an exceptional market to expand our growing offshore wind footprint.”

The permitting process for the four projects is already underway having installed wind measurement devices during 2021 and 2022. BP and Deep Wind Offshore will now look to install additional wind measurement systems and secure electricity business licenses in the coming period.

BP has an operating onshore wind portfolio in the US with a generating capacity totalling 1.7GW. It is also building its global offshore wind presence with a 5.2GW net capacity pipeline.

In the UK, with partner EnBW, BP is developing the Morgan and Mona projects in the Irish Sea and Morven in the North Sea off Scotland – together, the projects have potential gross generating capacity of around 6GW.

In the US, BP with Equinor are developing up to 4.4GW through two projects off the East Coast – Empire Wind and Beacon Wind.

Deep Wind Offshore is an international developer and owner of offshore wind projects, with headquarters in Norway and offices in Sweden and Korea.