Crown Estate Scotland has formally opened its Innovation and Targeted Oil and Gas (INTOG) offshore wind leasing process.
A two-week registration window opens today with the opening of the application window to follow later this month.
The deadline for applications will be 18 November 2022.
Developers are being invited to bid for seabed leases off the coast of Scotland to build projects that reduce North Sea emissions and boost innovation.
The auction will be split into two streams, with a 500MW cap on innovation projects of less than 100MW each, and a 4GW cap on targeted oil and gas (TOG) projects, according to the Scottish government’s Initial Plan Framework.
The government has assigned zones off the east coast of the Scottish mainland and to the west of Shetland for TOG projects, which will be developed to electrify oil and gas infrastructure.
Innovation projects meanwhile can be proposed in any location that is not earmarked for TOG projects or an exclusion zone. This includes seabed immediately off the east coast, to the west of the Western Isles and off Scotland’s far southwest.
Crown Estate Scotland has meanwhile decided to extend the option periods for proposed projects from five to seven years and to double the lease periods from 25 to 50 years for TOG schemes following feedback earlier this year.
Awards will be determined by a mixture of price bid and quality, with the auction results expected in March 2023. Exclusivity agreements will then be finalised.
Developers will be required to submit a Supply Chain Development Statement before they can sign an option agreement, which must outline the nature and location of their supply chain activity as well as detail the people and skills linked to their project.
Projects expected to bid include Simply Blue, Orsted and Subsea 7’s 100MW Salamander and Flotation Energy’s up to 30-turbine Green Volt, which aims to power CNOOC Petroleum Europe’s Buzzard oil and gas facility.
Cerulean Winds meanwhile said it will bid in four 1.5GW projects and has partnered with Ping Petroleum to power the latter’s Avalon field in the North Sea.
Colin Palmer, Director of Marine for Crown Estate Scotland, said: “INTOG represents an exciting opportunity to help decarbonise oil and gas installations and enable innovative projects which are important in lowering costs for the commercial deployment of offshore wind, reducing risk, and developing Scotland as a destination for innovation and technical expertise.
“Platform electrification, which INTOG will help deliver, will reduce North Sea oil and gas emissions while also supporting new skills and jobs. Taken as a whole, INTOG will play a significant role in helping us reach net-zero and meeting our energy requirements of the future.”
Michael Matheson MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Net-Zero, Energy and Transport, added: “We need bold action to tackle the climate emergency. Renewable energy, including offshore wind, will deliver good, green jobs, benefits for communities and strengthened energy security as we transition to becoming a net-zero nation.
“Oil and gas continue to play an important role in our economy and it is therefore vital that the energy industry decarbonises as rapidly as possible. The INTOG leasing round presents significant opportunities to cut emissions across these operations while, crucially, enabling the offshore wind sector to expand, innovate, and drive forward Scotland’s ambition to be a renewables powerhouse.”