European companies awarded offshore rights

ANGUS, Scotland, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- U.S.-based Fluor Corp.'s British division has been awarded exclusive rights to explore offshore energy in Scotland along with Scottish company Airtricity.

The two were given the rights by the Crown Estate to develop an offshore wind farm at Bell Rock off the coast of Angus district in eastern Scotland.

The proposed wind farm could have a capacity of up to 700 megawatts.

"We are extremely pleased to have been awarded this agreement and look forward to working closely with Airtricity and all the other key stakeholders to develop the Bell Rock project," said Patrick Flaherty, Fluor Corp.'s senior vice president and head of its Infrastructure Business Line.

In addition, Dutch power and natural gas utility Eneco announced it received the exclusive rights for the development of a wind farm in Block Q10 of the North Sea.

The capacity will be more than 200 megawatts, estimated to be enough power for 200,000 homes.