Equinor’s eastern ambitions: navigating opportunity and adversity in South Korea

In the evolving geography of global energy investment, few Western majors have signalled as sustained an interest in Asia’s energy transition as Norway’s Equinor. Traditionally known for its roots on the North Sea, the partly state-owned firm has for more than a decade cultivated a foothold in East Asia that spans oil and gas servicing, offshore infrastructure collaboration and, increasingly, renewable energy. Yet as it seeks growth in South Korea - a critical market within the Asia-Pacific - its experience underscores the complexity of marrying ambitious strategy with the practical realities of local markets.

Equinor opened its first South Korean office just over a decade ago, principally to oversee construction of heavy offshore oil and gas platforms and rigs built in South Korean yards on behalf of global projects. Korean shipbuilders such as Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries have supplied topsides, hulls and drilling equipment for Equinor fields, forming a long-standing industrial partnership.

More recently, the focus of that partnership has shifted markedly towards renewables, in particular floating offshore wind. South Korea’s vast maritime zone, with deep waters off its southern and eastern coasts, appears ideally suited to floating wind technology - an area in which Equinor is a global leader, operating half of the world’s current floating wind capacity.

At the centre of its Korean renewable portfolio is the Bandibuli project - also referred to as Firefly - an up to 750-MW floating offshore wind farm under development about 60-70km off Ulsan. Another venture, Donghae1, brings a smaller 200-MW scheme into play in partnership with the Korea National Oil Corporation and Korea East-West Power. Collectively, these projects form part of an intended pipeline of some 4 to 6 GW of offshore wind at varying stages of maturity.

Equinor has repeatedly reaffirmed its commitment to South Korea as a core component of its Asia strategy, highlighting both the government’s renewable targets - including an aspiration to expand offshore wind power generation significantly by 2034 - and the opportunity to work with Korean supply chains. To this end the firm was prominent at an energy trade show in the Korean city of Busan in summer 2025 where it gave a number of presentations including at least one to visiting Korean dignitaries including the nation’s prime minister.

Yet beneath the surface of these positive proclamations lie tangible challenges that illustrate the wider obstacles confronting foreign developers in Korea’s energy transition.

Bureaucracy and regulatory bottlenecks

One of the most persistent criticisms levelled at South Korea’s renewable sector is its bureaucratic complexity. Developers must navigate a thicket of laws and approvals across multiple ministries, a process that has in some cases involved consultation with a rumoured 20 or more distinct pieces of legislation and has in the process engendered years of delay.

Even as the government has taken steps to streamline procedures - for example by consolidating said approval processes - these reforms will take time to yield predictable outcomes. Delays have consequences not merely for sluggish project timelines but for financing. Offshore wind projects, with capital costs running into the billions, depend on clarity, certainty and cost-reflective policy frameworks to attract long-term investment.

Grid integration and market structure

A fundamental constraint for renewables in South Korea is the national grid itself. The country’s transmission and distribution infrastructure has struggled to keep pace with the rapid expansion of renewables capacity, leading to bottlenecks and at times even curtailment of potential wind output. Coupled to this are market design issues: power purchase arrangements and the sometimes overly influential and dominant role of the Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) which can make it difficult for independent generators to secure financially viable long-term contracts at sustainable rates.

Such structural constraints not only complicate the economics of offshore wind for companies like Equinor but have broader ramifications for investor confidence across the sector.

In late 2025 and early 2026, local media reported that Equinor missed a key deadline to finalise an agreement necessary for state backing of the Firefly/Bandibuli project – a topic the firm was due to be questioned on by Newsbase monitor AsiaElec until a long-planned interview was suddenly put-off indefinitely. The alleged failure to secure requisite renewable energy certificates in time has reportedly put government support at risk, potentially disqualifying the project from state aid for several years.

The broader implication is even more stark though: even world-leading developers are not immune to the friction generated by rushed timetables and the intricacies of local regulatory requirements. For Equinor, whose reputation in renewables is built on early-phase innovation and operational excellence, such setbacks can blunt momentum and strain relations with authorities and partners alike.

Competitive and policy ambiguity

Equinor’s challenges are not solely administrative though. The South Korean energy market is deeply intertwined with the geopolitics of energy supply and heavy industry policy. Despite ambitious pledges to reduce carbon emissions and grow renewables, fossil fuels - particularly coal and liquefied natural gas (LNG) - continue to account for a large proportion of generation, in part due to longstanding industrial interests and political oscillations in energy strategy. Renewables accounted for a modest share of electricity production even as targets have proliferated.

As such, Equinor’s experience in South Korea encapsulates the duality of opportunity and adversity facing global energy firms in Asia’s green economics. There is no question that the potential market is vast, underpinned by ambitious national goals and significant natural resources. But realising that opportunity will require not just technological capability or financial heft, but deep navigational acumen in regulatory, institutional and market complexities.

For Equinor, success in South Korea will depend on forging stronger alignment with local stakeholders, anticipating regulatory hurdles before they become performance constraints, and listening closely to the evolving policy landscape of a country at the crossroads of growth, security and decarbonisation.