Today’s license award means bp and Equinor now hold four carbon storage licenses on behalf of NEP which enable development of six CO2 storage sites in the southern North Sea.
The NEP is investing in developing at pace this wide portfolio of CO2 storage sites to serve both Teesside and the Humber. These plans will see NEP double its CO2 storage capacity to around 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year from 2030 – ready to serve East Coast Cluster expansion projects.
The East Coast Cluster plans to capture and store around 23 million tonnes of CO2 by 2035. Award of this new licence brings the total storage potential available to the East Coast Cluster for appraisal and development to 1 GTe CO2.
The licences have an appraisal term of 8 years allowing the licensees to apply for a storage permit during the appraisal term.
Chris Daykin, General Manager of the Northern Endurance Partnership, said: “bp and Equinor, on behalf of the NEP, are delighted to be awarded a further carbon storage licence. We now hold 4 licences for 6 CO2 stores in the North Sea with a potential capacity to store up to 1 GTe CO2. We are working at pace to develop these sites to serve the first phase of projects recently selected by DESNZ, and ensuring it is ready to meet the demands of a second and further future waves of projects.”
Grete Tveit, Senior Vice President for Low Carbon Solutions, Equinor, said: “Equinor is delighted to be awarded our 4th carbon storage license position in the Southern North Sea, together with partners bp and in association with the NEP project and East Coast Cluster. High quality subsurface storage space on the UK continental shelf is essential to serve the needs of industrial onshore emitters in the Humber and Teesside regions, and to realise the net zero ambitions of the UK Government.”
