Equinor gets government funding for wind turbines at North Sea oilfields

OSLO, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Equinor will get a 2.33 billion Norwegian crowns ($260 million) subsidy for its planned construction of floating wind turbines that will supply power to North Sea oil platforms, Norwegian state investment agency Enova said on Thursday.

Part of a strategy to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the project could reduce Norway's emissions of carbon dioxide by more than 200,000 tonnes per year, Equinor said last year.

The two fields are currently powered by generators running on natural gas at the five platforms. The preliminary cost estimate was 5 billion crowns, Equinor has said.

A final investment decision on the plan for Snorre and Gullfaks, known as the Hywind Tampen floating wind farm, will be made during the autumn of 2019. ($1 = 8.9603 Norwegian crowns) (Reporting by Victoria Klesty, editing by Terje Solsvik)