The head of BP's gas & low carbon business said on Wednesday the U.S. offshore wind industry is "fundamentally broken" but issues can be resolved, after BP and partner Equinor wrote down $840 million on their U.S. projects.
Orsted, the world's largest offshore wind developer, followed on Wednesday in flagging writedowns of up to $5.6 billion over its decision to halt the development of U.S. offshore wind projects.
Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath told an FT Energy Transition conference in London that problems in the United States included permitting, the time lag between signing power purchase agreements and projects being built and a lack of inflationary adjustment mechanisms.
She added that BP and Equinor are studying a new proposal by U.S. regulators that would allow the companies to rebid for projects in an "accelerated" process.
"There is a path forward but it's challenging," Dotzenrath told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.
"I believe all these projects will be built."
(Reuters - Reporting by Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)