STAVANGER, Norway (Reuters) – Norwegian energy company Equinor has cancelled its offshore-wind projects in Spain and Portugal, in addition to its previously announced exit from Vietnam, and could withdraw from more countries to rein in spending, an executive told Reuters on Wednesday.
“We have been actively pursuing early-phase opportunities in a series of markets around the world, in different geographies, and we confirm that we are exiting Vietnam, Spain and Portugal,” Equinor’s head of renewables, Paal Eitrheim, said.
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Local media first reported the exit from Spain and Portugal on Tuesday.
State-controlled Equinor needs to prioritise capital more than in the past given rising costs in the offshore wind sector, due to inflation, high interest rates and supply-chain delays.
“It’s getting more and more expensive, and we think things are going to take more time in quite a few markets around the world,” Eitrheim said, adding Equinor may pull out from more markets.
Eitrheim did not say how much capacity Equinor had been planning in Spain and Portugal.
Renewables were seeing a two-track pace of development, with onshore wind and solar being less affected by rising costs than Equinor’s offshore wind business, he added.
The company is maintaining its target of 12-16 gigawatts of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030, up from 0.9 GW in 2023, although this ambition was not a “hard target”, Eitrheim said.
“I’m not building 12 to 16 GW if that is at the expense of profitability.”
Still, Equinor’s renewables business was entering its busiest period ever, he added.
The company is constructing the first phase of the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm in the UK with partners SSE and Vaargroenn.
In addition, its Empire Wind project near New York and two Baltic Sea wind farms in Poland were close to final investment decisions.
“So that is what is going to build the next generation of offshore-wind growth for us,” Eitrheim said.
(Reporting by Nora Buli; Editing by Rod Nickel)
