Permits for carbon storage projects off the coast of Teesside, UK, have been awarded, and participants have begun announcing final investment decision (FID).
The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) announced on 10 December it has awarded the UK’s first carbon storage permit to the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) with first CO2 injection possible as early as 2027.
The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero gave notice on 6 September that it intended to award the license, and after receiving no objections during the notice period announced it has awarded an economic license to Net Zero North Sea Storage.
With those permits in place, the project participants can begin installing infrastructure on the site. Participants in the NEP venture, which is the CO2 transportation and storage provider for the East Coast Cluster, includes bp as operator with 45% interest, Equinor with 45%, and TotalEnergies with 10%. On 10 December, Equinor and TotalEnergies announced FID on the project.
The NEP is developing onshore and offshore infrastructure that is needed to transport CO2 from East Coast Cluster carbon capture projects offshore for storage in the Endurance saline aquifer and adjacent sites under the North Sea.
According to NSTA, the site is expected to serve Teesside-based carbon capture projects, including Net Zero Teesside (NZT) Power, H2Teesside, and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture.
“For a long time we have talked about the possibility of carbon storage; we have often touted the UK’s vast geographic potential of 78 Gt, we have drawn up plans for a carbon storage economy, and we have grasped the prospect of new jobs. Now we are making it happen,” NSTA Chief Executive Stuart Payne said in a press release.
Endurance, also known as the East Coast Cluster, was named as one of the two locations in the Track 1 cluster alongside HyNet, in the East Irish Sea.
In addition to Endurance, there are 26 additional carbon dioxide appraisal and storage licenses on the UK Continental Shelf, including 21 awarded by the NSTA last year in the UK’s first carbon storage licensing round. A second permit could be granted in the coming months, the NSTA said.
The NSTA said it aims to permit dozens of storage sites yearly because the UK has a potential storage capacity of 78 Gt in natural aquifers and depleted reservoirs.
NEP and NZT Project FIDs
Equinor announced 10 December it had reached FID on both the NEP and NZT Power projects.
Equinor said it expects the NEP project to begin construction from mid-2025 with startup expected in 2028. Infrastructure includes a CO2-gathering network and onshore compression facilities as well as a 145-km offshore pipeline and subsea injection and monitoring facilities for the Endurance aquifer 1000 m below the seabed.
The NEP project is expected to transport and store up to 4.0 mtpa of CO2 from three Teesside projects initially, rising to an average of up to 23 mtpa by 2035 with future expansion of the East Coast Cluster, Equinor said.
NZT Power, operated by bp with 75% interest alongside its partner Equinor holding 25%, will be a first-of-a-kind gas-fired power plant featuring carbon capture technology. It will have the capacity to generate up to 742 MW of power while capturing up to 2.0 mtpa of CO2 for transport and secure storage through the NEP project.
Equinor said work for both projects will be completed by nine leading engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractors with a combined value of around $5 billion.
Technip Energies, which leads a consortium with GE Vernova and construction partner Balfour Beatty with the support of technology partner Shell Catalysts & Technologies, announced 10 December it had received notice to proceed from NZT Power to execute an EPC contract valued at more than $1 billion for the onshore power, capture, and compression at NZT Power.
The consortium will deliver a combined cycle plant and associated carbon capture plant. Technip Energies will lead the integration of a state-of-the-art carbon capture plant using its Canopy by T.EN solution, powered by Shell’s CANSOLV CO2 Capture System. The plant will be powered by GE Vernova’s advanced 9HA.02 gas turbine, a steam turbine, a generator, a heat-recovery steam generator, an exhaust-gas recirculation system, and benefit from GE Vernova’s maintenance service contract for 16 years.
Greensand FID
Elsewhere, Nordsøfonden has announced reaching FID to establish the Greensand Future Project, a CO2 storage project, at the Nini field in the Danish North Sea, marking the first CO2 storage site offshore Denmark.
INEOS, the project operator, announced reaching FID on the project in September. The partners aim to start storage operations at the end of 2025 or early 2026 and expect to invest more than $150 million across the Greensand CCS value chain to scale storage capacity.
With the Greensand Future Project, Nordsøfonden said the partners expect to store up to 400,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually with the ambition of reaching full capacity of up to 8.0 mtpa by 2030.