Odfjell Oceanwind combines 50 years of experience from operating in offshore harsh environments with 20 years of experience from floating offshore wind to create floating offshore wind solutions for the future.
Odfjell Oceanwinds sister company, Odfjell Drilling has pioneered the full-cycle development and operations of floating offshore semisubmersible drilling rigs and is considered the leading operator of those units in harsh environments. The company has a long term and industrial approach and has always maintained a strong in-house engineering competency. Several of the competencies and experiences from drilling rigs are to a large degree transferable to the floating wind industry and Odfjell Oceanwind has access to more than 300 engineers within relevant disciplines in the Odfjell group, which following a de-merger in 2022 has been located in Odfjell Technology as a shared resources for the Odfjell companies.
In 2020, Odfjell decided to invest in Oceanwind, founded by a group of Norwegian floating wind pioneers with legacy back to the floating wind specialist Sway that developed the first floating wind spar designs in the early 2000`s and renamed it Odfjell Oceanwind.
In early 2021, the second largest Nordic operator of onshore wind, Aneo (former Trønderenergi), and the leading Norwegian investor Blystad Group became shareholders, and the company commenced the building of a management team and onboarding of key team resources to further develop the company and position for the significant growth expected within floating offshore wind.
2022 was a year defined by geopolitical uncertainty and where Odfjell Oceanwind the first half focused on further building the company and spent considerable amount of time on projects that in the end did not materialize. This new environment and set-backs triggered a larger strategic review and where the company decided to focus more on developing its own projects and take a more active role in project development by taking equity positions in selected projects.
In early 2023, Odfjell Oceanwind decided to apply for the Utsira Nord concessions in Norway and shortly after announced the Deepsea Star™ floater design that will be applied for both the UtsiraVIND and the GoliatVIND project that Odfjell Oceanwind, Source Galileo and Vår Energi jointly announced the collaboration of in April 2023. During the summer of 2023, Japanese energy giant Kansai Electric Power Company (Kansai) and IKEA`s investment arm, INGKA Investments, joined as partners in the UtsiraVIND consortium, and Japanese shipping giant Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd (MOL). joined as a strategic shareholder in Odfjell Oceanwind in October 2023. Further, in December 2023, Kansai was confirmed as new shareholder in GoliatVIND.
In February 2024, Odfjell Oceanwind launched the Windsteel Technologies initiative together with Prodtex to address what is expected to become one of the biggest bottlenecks in scaling the floating offshore wind industry: low cost and high-capacity manufacturing of foundations for floating wind turbines. A few weeks later, the GoliatVIND project got a significant boost by being awarded 2 billion NOK (175m EUR) in capex grants from ENOVA in tough competition with other projects.
The first quarter of 2024 was rounded off with our project partner, Kansai, becoming the third largest shareholder in Odfjell Oceanwind after the Odfjell family and MOL.
Odfjell Oceanwind is currently a private company with strong ties to Odfjell Technology and Odfjell Drilling, both listed companies at the Oslo Stock Exchange.