Culzean Floating Wind

Marine Scotland’s MS-LOT register records that a Marine Licence Variation (record 00011197) for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project, east of Aberdeen, was issued on 8 August 2025, indicating that the requested variation to the existing marine licence was approved.

An application for a Marine Licence Variation (record 00011197) for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project, located east of Aberdeen, was submitted to Marine Scotland’s Marine Licensing Operations Team (MS-LOT) on 15 April 2025, as recorded in the MS-LOT online register.

Lankhorst Offshore was reported on 18 December 2024 to have been awarded a contract by Delmar Systems to supply Cabral 512 polyester mooring lines with new cut-resistant LankoShield jackets for Archer Wind’s EPCIC scope on TotalEnergies’ Culzean floating wind pilot, with the lines to be deployed at the 90-metre-deep site around 222 km east of Aberdeen to moor the Ocergy semi-submersible floater.

Delmar Systems was selected by Archer Wind, as announced on 11 December 2024, to deliver the complete mooring scope for TotalEnergies’ Culzean floating offshore wind pilot project, providing the full mooring system to secure the Ocergy-designed modular light semi-submersible floater for the 3 MW turbine positioned about 2 km west of the Culzean production complex.

Archer Wind has started fabrication of the floating foundation for TotalEnergies’ Culzean floating offshore wind pilot project, with the first steel plate cut on 19 November 2024, marking the transition from design and planning into physical construction of this major project component that will support the single 3 MW turbine powering the Culzean gas platform in the UK North Sea.

On 12 September 2024, TP-Products announced it had secured a contract from Archer Wind to supply its patented bolted flange connector system for the floating wind foundation of TotalEnergies’ Culzean Wind Pilot, described as forming part of what will be the world’s first bolted floating wind structure.

On 29 August 2024, TotalEnergies officially announced the launch of the Culzean floating offshore wind pilot project, a 3 MW floating turbine to be installed on an Ocergy-designed modular semi-submersible hull 2 km west of the Culzean platform, selected under Crown Estate Scotland’s INTOG leasing round to provide around 20% of the platform’s power needs by the end of 2025.

Archer Wind, the floating offshore wind solutions arm of Archer, was awarded its first contract by TotalEnergies on 29 August 2024 to deliver the floating wind foundation for the Culzean Wind Pilot, including detailed engineering, fabrication and assembly of the Ocergy-based floating foundation that will be connected to the Culzean gas platform.

On 29 August 2024, TotalEnergies formally launched the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Pilot Project, a 3 MW floating wind turbine located 2 km west of the Culzean platform and 220 km off the east coast of Scotland, to supply around 20% of the platform’s power demand. The company announced the project as an INTOG-selected pilot to demonstrate hybridised power generation between the floating turbine and existing gas turbines and to qualify Ocergy’s modular semi-submersible floater design for future floating offshore wind applications, targeting full operation by the end of 2025.

Marine Scotland (MS-LOT) granted a Marine Licence Variation for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project east of Aberdeen, recorded under licence reference 00010921 on 22 August 2024, indicating an approved variation to the project’s existing marine licence. This determination is listed on the Marine Scotland marine.gov.scot register as a licence entry for the project.

The Scottish Ministers granted a marine licence under section 65 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 to TotalEnergies E&P North Sea UK Limited for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project, comprising a single three‑bladed horizontal axis wind turbine generator and associated export cable located approximately 222 km east of Aberdeen. The licence, recorded in the Marine Directorate’s licensing system with a granted date in August 2024 and a commencement date of 23 August 2024, provides project‑wide consent to construct, alter or improve the marine renewable energy works for the pilot project.

TotalEnergies reached Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Culzean floating wind turbine pilot project in May 2024, enabling the transition from development into execution. The project involves installing a 3 MW Vestas V112 turbine on an innovative semi-submersible OCG-Wind floater designed by Ocergy, positioned near the Culzean gas-producing asset in the North Sea. The floating unit is expected to supply around 20% of the platform’s power needs with green electricity, as part of TotalEnergies’ wider strategy to decarbonise its upstream operations and cut direct emissions by 40% by 2030. The FID confirms corporate backing for this hybridisation concept, in which the Culzean platform will be powered by a mix of offshore wind and existing gas turbines, reducing reliance on conventional generation and associated emissions. [1][2] Ocergy notes that the pilot has entered the final stages of engineering and that first steel cut is imminent, explicitly linking this progress to the FID recently announced by TotalEnergies. On the operator’s side, the company reports that following the May 2024 FID, rolling of steel began in November, with full fabrication planned to start in January and the turbine targeted to be in the water and supplying power by Q4 2025. Together, these statements confirm that funding and internal approvals are in place to advance detailed engineering, fabrication and subsequent offshore installation of the pilot unit. [1][2]

TotalEnergies Upstream UK Limited awarded Archer Wind the EPCIC provider contract for the Culzean Floating Wind Pilot, as recorded in NSTA’s Energy Pathfinder, with the contract dated 13 May 2024.

NSTA Energy Pathfinder records that TotalEnergies Upstream UK Limited awarded Prysmian a subsea contract for the Culzean Floating Wind Pilot, described as provision of inter-array cables (IAC), on 13 May 2024, confirming Prysmian as the project’s cable supplier.

Following submission of the marine licence application and EIAR for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Pilot Project, the Scottish Ministers opened a public consultation, publishing a notice that application documents could be inspected in Aberdeen Central Library and online and inviting written representations on the proposed works to be submitted by 25 April 2024.

TotalEnergies E&P North Sea UK Ltd (TEPNSUK) submitted an application to the Scottish Ministers for a marine licence under section 65 of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 to construct and operate a single 3 MW floating wind turbine for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Pilot Project within INTOG Option Area E‑a, approximately 220 km east of Aberdeen and with no onshore grid connection.

Marine Scotland’s Marine Scotland Licensing Operations Team (MS-LOT) issued a Decision Notice and granted Marine Licence record 00010724 for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project east of Aberdeen on 22 February 2024, as recorded on the MS-LOT register.

On 22 February 2024, TotalEnergies submitted the Offshore Environmental Impact Assessment Report (including non‑technical summary and appendices) for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project to the Scottish Government’s Marine Directorate – Licensing Operations Team to support the marine licence application.

Ocergy stated in an August 28 release that its OCG-Wind floating unit for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project will be fitted with a Vestas V112 3 MW turbine, indicating that Vestas has been selected as the turbine supplier and model for the single-turbine pilot located 2 km west of the Culzean platform in the UK North Sea.

In a release dated 28 August 2023, Ocergy reported that the Culzean floating wind pilot had entered the final stages of engineering, with first steel cut for its OCG-Wind semisubmersible hull less than two months away, marking a key technical qualification milestone for the floater design ahead of fabrication.

By April 2023, the geophysical survey campaign for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project had been completed, covering the turbine site and cable route between the floater and the Culzean CPF platform in water depths of about 88–92 metres. Results from this March–April 2023 campaign were later summarised in the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and cable plan as completed site investigation data used to refine the cable route and engineering design.

The shallow geotechnical survey programme for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project was concluded by April 2023, completing vibrocore and CPT investigations at the three planned mooring locations and along the cable corridor to the Culzean CPF platform. These March–April 2023 data sets are referenced in later project documentation as completed site investigations used to refine the cable route and confirm suitable ground conditions for the floater moorings and subsea cable installation.

By April 2023, the benthic and wider environmental baseline surveys for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project had been completed, providing data on seabed habitats and communities from grab sampling, imagery, drop-down video and eDNA analysis. The March–April 2023 survey results were incorporated into the project’s Environmental Impact Assessment and associated reports submitted with the marine licence application, and are later summarised in the revised Cable Plan as completed site investigations.

In March 2023, Ocean Infinity, contracted by TotalEnergies E&P North Sea UK Ltd, commenced a site-specific geophysical survey for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project over a 2 km by 2 km area west of the Culzean platform. The survey, undertaken from the M/V Deep Helder, used multibeam echo sounder, side-scan sonar, sub-bottom profiler, sparker and magnetometer to characterise seabed and sub-seabed conditions and inform project design and the Environmental Impact Assessment.

In March 2023, shallow geotechnical investigations for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project began alongside geophysical work, including vibrocore and cone penetration test (CPT) campaigns at the planned mooring locations and at intervals along the proposed power cable route to the Culzean CPF platform. These site-specific investigations were commissioned by TotalEnergies to determine soil conditions for mooring and cable design and to support the Environmental Impact Assessment.

In March 2023, TotalEnergies initiated additional environmental and benthic baseline surveys for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project, including grab samples, seabed imagery, drop-down video and eDNA analysis to characterise benthic communities along the turbine site and cable route. These surveys, undertaken in parallel with geophysical and geotechnical work, were commissioned to support the Environmental Impact Assessment and Habitats Regulations Assessment.

TotalEnergies E&P North Sea UK Ltd (TEPNSUK) secured seabed rights for the Culzean Floating Offshore Wind Turbine Pilot Project in March 2023 through Crown Estate Scotland’s Innovation and Targeted Oil & Gas (INTOG) leasing process, receiving an exclusivity offer for a single-turbine floating wind project directly supplying the Culzean gas platform. The project lies within INTOG Option Area E-a in the UK central North Sea, approximately 220 km east of Aberdeen, and was selected as one of the TOG projects aimed at decarbonising offshore oil and gas infrastructure.