July 16 (oilprice.com) It’s not often that wind power and oil and gas are mentioned in the same breath.
The rare occasion concerns a new type of offshore wind turbine launched in China that will power the extraction of fossil fuels by offshore oil platforms.
Developed by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the world’s first 16-megawatt tension-leg platform (TLP) floating offshore wind turbine set sail at the end of June from Zhuhai in Guangdong Province, southern China.
It will be used at the Lufeng oil fields in the South China Sea.
The structure is held in place by tensioned anchor cables. By contrast, most offshore wind platforms currently in operation are fixed-bottom, meaning they are secured directly to the seabed — typically using monopiles or jacket frames.
The U.S. Department of Energy says about two-thirds of US offshore wind energy potential exists over waters too deep for fixed-bottom wind turbine foundations and instead require floating platforms.
The hulking structure is about 307 meters tall and weighs up to 8,000 tonnes. According to Intelligent Engineering, By single-turbine capacity, it is the largest floating platform of its exact kind ever built…
It is expected to generate an average of 54 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. That is enough to slash carbon dioxide emissions by roughly 35,000 tonnes per year. Furthermore, the clean juice will save about 15,000 cubic meters of fuel oil that would otherwise be burned to keep the Lufeng pumps spinning.
By routing the platform’s clean electricity straight to the Lufeng oilfield cluster via subsea cables, the project will establish a direct, low-carbon power supply for offshore oil and gas production.
The engineering feat follows the installation by China of the world’s largest offshore converter station, which collects alternating current generated by individual wind turbines, stepping up the voltage and converting it into high-voltage direct current before transmitting the electricity to the onshore grid via subsea cables.
Named “Heart of the Sea Wind”, the converter station completed its offshore floatover installation in Guandong Province in early June, the state-owned Global Times newspaper reported.
China is the global leader in offshore wind power capacity.
Data from the National Energy Administration showed that, by the end of May, the country’s installed wind power capacity rose 17% to 660 million kilowatts, and its total installed power generation capacity was up 11% year on year to 4.01 billion kilowatts.
A separate industry report found that China accounted for 78% of newly grid-connected offshore wind capacity worldwide in 2025.
According to Global Energy Monitor, global operating wind capacity exceeds 1.1 terawatts (TW), while 2.7 TW are in the pipeline. China is home to half of all operating offshore wind capacity, and Brazil leads in planned offshore projects, with 90% of the country’s future wind capacity growth expected to come from offshore wind.
As for wind power in the US, Oilprice recently reported that There has been significant back-and-forth on offshore wind power in the United States. As part of ambitious plans for a green transition, the former Biden administration strongly supported offshore wind with both policy and federal funding. However, the Trump administration has since backtracked on U.S. wind energy goals, with President Trump openly opposing offshore wind. However, with greater political pushback from Congress and federal judges, it appears that progress on wind energy is hard to halt…
- Trump’s administration paid TotalEnergies nearly $1 billion and Duke Energy $129 million to abandon offshore wind projects, redirecting the savings toward oil and gas.
- A Pentagon freeze on wind farm reviews has stalled 106 projects worth an estimated $47 billion across 21 states, prompting a lawsuit from renewable energy groups.
- Federal judges have repeatedly ruled against the administration, including restoring a tax credit rule for wind and solar projects this June.
By Andrew Topf
Brazil Energy Insight 
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