Empire Offshore Wind LLC is complying with the notice received from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) on 22 December 2025, ordering the suspen-sion of ongoing activities on the Outer Continental Shelf citing national security concerns.
The Department of Interior has confirmed that a total of five offshore wind projects under construction have received notices. Empire Wind is engaging with relevant authorities to better understand this matter. Equinor has extensive experience in the US and around the world operating offshore energy infrastructure and working with military and civilian authorities to ensure compliance with national security requirements.
Empire Wind will connect to New York’s grid, delivering reliable power and strengthen the state’s energy security. Once completed, the project will provide enough power to electrify 500 000 homes. Empire Wind has co-ordinated closely with the federal officials on national security reviews since it executed its lease for the project in 2017, including with the Department of War.
Empire Wind is complying with relevant national security related requirements, identified as part of the regulatory process conducted over several years. Empire plans to continue to work with BOEM and other federal agencies to continue to implement all necessary mitigation for the project.
The project is more than 60% complete, with trenching, cable-laying, and cable pulling ongoing on the US outer continental shelf. In total, dozens of vessels, around 1000 people, and more than a hundred companies in the US and globally have been working in coordination on the Empire Wind project. The stop work order threatens the progress of these activities and without a swift solution there may be significant impact to the project.
Empire and its contractors are complying with the order, safely suspending all ongoing activities related to the Empire Wind Project on the Outer Continental Shelf, with the ability to perform any activities that are necessary to respond to emergency situations and/or to prevent impacts to health, safety, and the environment.
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