Chamber welcomes Government approval for Equinor’s Carbon Capture and Storage plans as part of £4bn scheme

TWO of Equinor’s partnership projects, Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and Net Zero Teesside Power (NZTP), have been approved by the Government and will now become a reality marking a major milestone in the UK’s £4-billion Carbon Capture and Storage plans.

The announcement means the country’s first carbon storage facility has been given the go-ahead to capture millions of tonnes of CO2 and store it under the North Sea, thereby helping to clean up some of Europe’s biggest carbon producing areas.

The North Sea is thought to be an ideal geological location for carbon capture, where disused oil and gas aquifers will be used to store C02 emissions from heavy industries.

The Hull & Humber Chamber of Commerce has been a strong backer of Equinor’s plans and has supported their efforts in lobbying the Government to get the schemes in Teeside and the Humber approved. Chamber Chief Executive Dr Ian Kelly said: “This is great news for the Humber and for Teeside as well. When we hosted the then Shadow Energy Secretary Ed Miliband at the Chamber in Hull we impressed upon him the urgency of bringing this scheme to the fore if the UK is to meet its 2050 net zero targets.”

Now the Energy Secretary in the new Government, Ed Miliband said: “This investment launches a new era for clean energy in Britain – boosting energy security, backing industries, and supporting thousands of highly skilled jobs in Teesside and the North East.

“This is the Government’s mission to make the UK a clean energy superpower in action- replacing Britain’s energy insecurity with homegrown clean power that rebuilds the strength of our industrial heartlands.”

Richard Royal, Head of Public Affairs & Communications for Equinor, said: “This is fantastic news and a very important step for the low carbon energy industry, establishing the very first carbon capture and storage projects in the UK. Whilst this announcement relates primarily to Teesside, it also helps to unlock and speed up similar opportunities in the Humber.

“We now have the green light to further develop and consult on engineering plans for the onshore CO2 pipeline from Easington to Drax, in advance of a DCO submission.

“Also, with the first Track-1 projects ‘off the blocks’, it clears the way for the progression of Track-1 Expansion and Track 2 projects in the Humber, which have been in limbo for nearly two years.”   

Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president of Marketing, Midstream and Processing at Equinor said she was looking forward to continuing the collaboration with Equinor’s partners and the UK Government as we prepare to progress the projects, with an estimated operational date from 2028 onwards.

“NEP, in which Equinor is a key partner, is the CO2 transportation and storage provider for the East Coast Cluster (ECC), one of the UK Government’s first selected CCS clusters.

The project expects to commence construction from mid-2025 with start-up in 2028. It includes a CO2 gathering network and onshore compression facilities as well as a 145km offshore pipeline and subsea injection and monitoring facilities for the Endurance saline aquifer located around 1000m below the seabed. It could transport and store up to 4 million tonnes of captured carbon dioxide emissions per year from three Teesside projects initially, rising to an average of up to 23 million tonnes by 2035 with future expansion of the East Coast Cluster.

“The UK is a key market for Equinor and we have a history of delivering significant energy provision along its East Coast, transitioning from traditional oil and gas demand to include renewables and low carbon options such as CCS and hydrogen. This is a major step for both Equinor and the UK, helping to decarbonise the country’s industrial heartlands and achieve its net zero ambitions whilst providing jobs and supply chain opportunities. We look forward to working with the Government to deliver further low carbon projects across the UK including in the Humber and in Scotland”, says Alex Grant, UK country manager at Equinor.

Equinor is also a partner in NZT Power, which is part of the East Coast Cluster. NZT Power will be a new first-of-a-kind gas-fired power plant with carbon capture, which supports the decarbonisation ambitions across the north-east of England’s industrial regions.

The plant will have the capacity to generate up to 742 megawatts of decarbonised, flexible power, complementing a growing share of intermittent renewable power. This capacity is equivalent to the average electricity demand of around 1 million UK homes. It will have a capacity to capture up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year for transport and secure storage by the NEP project.

Equinor has a 45 per cent stake in NEP with the remaining 45 per cent owned by BP and 10 per cent by TotalEnergies, and a 25 per cent stake in the NZT Power project with the remaining 75 per cent owned by BP. BP provides operator services on both projects.

Building work for both projects will be completed by nine leading engineering, procurement, and construction contractors with a combined value of around £4-billion. The work will bring thousands of jobs and wider socio-economic benefits to the north-east of England.

NEP has also been granted government approval to progress development engineering for the Humber Carbon Capture Pipeline (HCCP), the proposed onshore infrastructure project that would transport CO2 from future selected carbon capture projects in the Humber region.