Orsted has declared its operational and financial situation remains stable amid the COVID-19 pandemic but has warned the public health emergency sweeping the globe could have a negative impact on its business.
The Danish offshore wind developer, which has already introduced a series of measures such as home-working and travel restrictions for its staff, said its asset base is fully operational and construction projects are progressing as normal.
An extensive hedging programme means the company is “largely shielded” against the ongoing market volatility while a Dkr30bn liquidity reserve would tide the outfit over through 2020 and 2021 without additional cash.
However, ongoing travel restrictions and quarantining of workers could impact the ability to keep sites operational as well as supplier delivery of “critical components” to projects under construction.
The economic uncertainty, it added, could have a negative affect on key suppliers while in the most affected markets there is a dip in demand for power.
“As to our development pipeline, we remain dependent on public authorities to progress the permitting and consenting of awarded projects and development sites, and to progress the development of regulatory frameworks, including tenders and auctions. Such processes could be exposed to risk of delays due to travel restrictions, people working from home, and government stakeholders being occupied by crisis management,” said a statement.
“Likewise, our signed divestments could be at risk of delays as approval processes must be conducted virtually. However, all divestments remain well in progress and we expect potential delays to have limited impact.”
A corporate crisis management team has been set up and a further update on the COVID-19 situations will be released in April.