The move is part of the company's efforts to refocus its portfolio, amid ongoing political upheaval in the Southeast Asian country and uncertainties over the company's development path.

Equinor has decided to end its business development in Vietnam and close its Hanoi office that was geared to offshore wind, its spokesperson told Reuters.

The company has already withdrawn from more than a dozen fossil fuel projects to concentrate on renewable energy and low-carbon systems.

Despite the abundant potential, offshore wind power projects in Vietnam face hurdles due to legal uncertainties and ambiguities.

Last year, Danish offshore wind giant Ørsted A/S also paused its multi-gigawatt offshore wind plans in Vietnam due to regulatory challenges.

To date, Vietnam has not initiated any true offshore wind projects and has only developed intertidal wind projects situated near the shore, thus the target of installing 6GW of offshore wind capacity by 2030 presents considerable challenges, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC).