Crown Estate Scotland has recently announced that five offshore wind projects have entered into exclusivity agreements as part of the innovation strand of its INTOG leasing round. The purpose of the INTOG (Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas) leasing initiative is to attract investment in innovative offshore wind projects in Scottish waters while also contributing to the decarbonization of North Sea operations.
Under the INTOG process, developers had the opportunity to apply for seabed rights to develop projects that either reduce emissions from the North Sea oil and gas sector by directly supplying renewable electricity to oil and gas infrastructure (TOG) or comprise small-scale innovative projects of 100MW or less (IN).
On March 24th, it was announced that a total of 13 projects had been offered initial agreements, known as Exclusivity Agreements, with five being IN projects and eight being TOG projects. The IN projects have a proposed capacity of up to 499MW.
Crown Estate Scotland has confirmed that Marine Scotland's planning process for the INTOG Sectoral Marine Plan (INTOG SMP) has been completed. If a proposed project is successfully included in the final INTOG SMP, an option agreement will be offered. This agreement will facilitate the project's progression through the planning, consenting, and financing stages.
It is important to note that Crown Estate Scotland is not responsible for these subsequent stages, and projects will only proceed to a full seabed lease once all the required development stages have been successfully completed.
Option agreements are expected to be offered in 2024. Developers will be required to provide a Supply Chain Development Statement (SCDS) to secure an option agreement, and information from these statements will subsequently be published.
Exclusivity agreements for TOG projects are anticipated to be signed later this year.
