Shell could walk away from offshore wind in $1 billion+ sell-off

Shell is planning to sell its offshore wind farm assets in a deal that could raise more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reports.

Reuters, which reported on Bloomberg’s report on Friday, said Shell has hired Rothschild & Co and PJT Partners as advisers, and that the sales process is likely to take place around 2027. Shell declined to comment to Reuters, which also said it could not independently verify Bloomberg’s report. 

The accessible reporting is still preliminary, so it doesn’t specify which offshore wind assets are being sold, where they’re located, whether they’re operating or still in development, or who the likely buyers are. So while it’s a big headline, we don’t yet know any details. 

But the direction Shell is headed in is pretty darn clear, if it wasn’t before. Since Wael Sawan took over as CEO in 2023, Shell has repeatedly signaled that it wants to put more capital behind oil, gas, and especially LNG, while becoming much more selective about renewables.

Shell has already begun a pullback on offshore wind. Shell sold its 50% stake in SouthCoast Wind Energy off the Massachusetts coast in March 2024, took a $1 billion write-off on Atlantic Shores in New Jersey while seeking to monetize that stake in October 2025, exited the MunmuBaram floating wind project in South Korea in November 2025, and pulled back from the CampionWind and MarramWind projects off Scotland the same month. Reuters reported in February that the oil giant is reviewing strategic options for Sprng Energy in India, which Shell bought for $1.55 billion in 2022. 

Meanwhile, Shell keeps getting louder about gas. Sawan said LNG would be Shell’s biggest contribution to the energy industry over the next decade. Sawan isn’t mincing words about what Shell thinks deserves long-term capital and what doesn’t.  

What makes Shell’s move matter is that it comes at a time when Europe still needs more offshore wind, not less. In Europe, total offshore wind installations passed 38 GW, making up 42% of global offshore wind capacity by the end of 2025. The UK, for instance, plans another 6 GW leasing round in 2027, following its latest subsidy auction, which secured 8.2 GW. So the policy push is still there.  

Electrek’s Take

This is another case of a fossil-fuel giant deciding that the energy transition is fine as long as someone else does the hard work and spends the capital.

Shell’s exit doesn’t automatically kill the assets; Atlantic Shores and ScottishPower have both said the projects Shell pulled out of can still move forward.

But Shell is saying loud and clear that it’s betting LNG will deliver better returns than offshore wind, even as governments keep building policy frameworks around wind as a core decarbonization technology. 

Read more: Shell renewables head steps down after CEO shifts company focus back to oil and gas

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