Ørsted opened a $9.4bn rights issue to fund its Sunrise Wind project in the US after hitting severe headwinds and finding it difficult to secure financing or sell a stake in the project. Now Equinor has signalled its support the issue and to strengthen Ørsted’s balance sheet in response to the current challenges.

Equinor intends to participate in the rights issue and maintain its 10 per cent ownership share. Equinor will also nominate a candidate to Ørsted’s board of directors.

In response to the challenges facing offshore wind, the industry will see consolidation and new business models. Equinor says that it believes that a closer industrial and strategic collaboration between Ørsted and Equinor will create value for all shareholders in both companies.

Equinor’s offshore wind portfolio consists of 0.4 GW net installed capacity, and a further 3.0 GW under development. The current focus is on completing the ongoing development projects in North-West Europe and Empire Wind 1 in the US.

Equinor had recently also reported the first CO2 volumes stored at Northern Lights CCUS project.

The first CO₂ volumes have now been injected and successfully stored in the reservoir 2.600 meters under the seabed at the world’s first third party CO2 transport and storage facility.

“With CO2 safely stored below the seabed, we mark a major milestone. This demonstrates the viability of carbon capture, transport and storage as a scalable industry. With the support from the Norwegian government and in close collaboration with our partners, we have successfully transformed this project from concept to reality,” said CEO of Equinor, Anders Opedal.

The Northern Lights Joint Venture is equally owned by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies. Equinor, as the Technical Service Provider (TSP), has been responsible for the construction of the Øygarden facility and the offshore facilities on behalf of the Northern Lights JV, and will also have operational responsibility of the CO2 plant.

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