Samsung Heavy Industries has decided to strengthen strategic cooperation with Equinor, a Norwegian state-owned integrated energy company, regarding the exclusive supply of offshore wind power facility structures.
On the 7th, Samsung Heavy Industries announced that it signed a Preferred Supplier Agreement (PSA) with Equinor for the exclusive supply of floating substructures for wind power facilities and marshalling operations to be used in the 'Firefly Floating Offshore Wind Power Project' in the East Sea. Marshalling refers to the process of arranging containers for loading or unloading from container ships.
The agreement signed this time is a practical cooperation measure between the two companies during the development phase of the offshore wind power project, discussed by Anders Opedal, Chairman of Equinor, who visited Korea last month, and Choi Sung-an, Vice Chairman of Samsung Heavy Industries.
Equinor is promoting the development of an offshore wind power project, known as the 'Firefly Project,' to be constructed with a maximum capacity of 750 MW at sea 60 to 70 km away from Ulsan. If Equinor is finally selected as the project operator, Samsung Heavy Industries will manufacture the floating substructures for 50 units of 15 MW floating offshore wind power facilities to be deployed there. Samsung Heavy Industries will exclusively perform the marshalling work that integrates these with towers and power turbines. The government plans to conduct a competitive bidding for the offshore wind power project and select the operator within this year.
Equinor established a special purpose company (SPC) called 'Firefly Energy' in 2021 to participate in this bidding and secure a power purchase agreement.
Samsung Heavy Industries is actively responding to the increasing domestic and international demand for offshore wind power by developing an independent floating offshore wind power facility model called Tri-Star Float.
Since September 2022, Samsung Heavy Industries and Equinor have signed a strategic cooperation agreement and have been operating a regular consultative body to explore mid- to long-term business strategies and ways to expand cooperation areas.
A Samsung Heavy Industries official stated, "Based on Samsung Heavy Industries' excellent marine engineering technology and manufacturing capabilities, we are expanding cooperation with Equinor in various fields such as offshore oil and gas development and offshore wind power generation."
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