Global energy business conglomerate bp and Deep Wind Offshore, an offshore wind project developer, have formed a joint venture to explore projects in South Korea.

Under the agreement, bp acquired a 55% stake in Deep Wind Offshore’s early-stage portfolio, which comprises four projects across the Korean peninsula. The projects have a combined generation capacity of up to 6 GW.

The wind measurement devices for the projects were installed during 2021-2022, while the permit process is already underway.

bp’s Senior Vice President of Offshore Wind, Matthias Bausenwein, said, “South Korea is an exceptional market to expand our growing offshore wind footprint. We are very happy to be working with a partner as strong as Deep Wind Offshore, which has managed to build a strong local team and develop these projects in collaboration with a variety of Korean stakeholders.”

Norway-headquartered Deep Wind Offshore has projects under development in many global markets. The company is backed by industrial owners Knutsen Group, Haugaland Kraft, and SKL from the shipping/offshore and utility sectors.

Deep Wind Offshore’s CEO Knut Vassbotn commented, “We look forward to integrating our teams to realize the projects in a sustainable manner, in close collaboration with local stakeholders to bring both clean electricity to the country and opportunities to local supply chain and communities.”

bp has a four-decade-old history in the country, including sizeable oil and LNG trading activities and its Castrol lubricants business. It has an operational onshore wind portfolio in the U.S. with a generating capacity totaling 1.7 GW. The energy company is also building its global offshore wind presence with a net capacity pipeline of 5.2 GW.

Last October, the U.S. government announced plans to hold a lease sale for areas off the West Coast for wind projects that are critical to achieving the administration’s offshore wind energy targets of 30 GW by the end of the decade and a floating offshore wind energy goal of 15 GW by 2035.

In the same month, the United States Department of Energy announced $30 million in funding from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to reinforce wind energy’s role as a renewable energy resource. Of the total $30 million funding, the department invited applications for a $28 million funding opportunity for projects that support significant initiatives.