Landmark Agreement Provides Platform For Delivery Of Major Carbon Store In North Sea

Republished By Plato

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The Crown Estate has awarded an Agreement for Lease for what it says could become one of the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects, playing a significant role in meeting the UK’s net zero ambitions.

Announced on 5 October, the Agreement for Lease will allow bp, as lead operator, to further progress its planned ‘Endurance’ CCS project, a reservoir in the rock deep below the North Sea which would be used to store hard-to-abate carbon emissions captured from carbon-intensive heavy industry in Teesside and Humberside. The scale of the project means it has the potential to substantially decarbonise the UK’s industrial emissions, significantly supporting UK Government ambitions to capture and store 20–30 MtCO2 per year by 2030.

The announcement is suggested as a significant milestone in the maturation of carbon capture, usage and storage (CCS) – a technology dubbed by the Climate Change Committee as a ‘necessity not an option’ if the UK is to meet its 2050 net zero target, and a technology that promises huge benefits, supporting jobs and communities, while driving forward the nation’s energy security and net zero ambitions.

Gus Jaspert, Managing Director of Marine at The Crown Estate, said: “The Crown Estate is firmly focussed on maximising the potential of the seabed in support of net zero and energy security. This project promises to be a significant contributor to both, alongside our vital work to accelerate our world-class offshore wind industry and to support the growth of emerging renewable technologies.

“We will continue to work to bring future CCS opportunities to the market, including the development of our own CCS leasing process, ensuring these projects can be undertaken successfully alongside the range of other seabed activities that the UK relies upon.”

Endurance forms part of the Northern Endurance Partnership’s (NEP) East Coast Cluster, which in October 2021 was selected as one of the first clusters in phase-1 of the UK Government’s CCS cluster sequencing process. The cluster also benefits from a licence awarded by the North Sea Transmission Authority (NSTA), with whom The Crown Estate collaborates closely in seeking to shape the CCS industry for the benefit of the nation. Recognising that investing in CCS is a long-term commitment with the potential to deliver benefits that will be felt over generations, the Agreement for Lease allows for construction, CO2 injection, as well as monitoring and decommissioning.

Chris Daykin, the managing director of the Northern Endurance Partnership, said: “The East Coast Cluster has a critical role to play in the delivery of UK decarbonization, with the ability to remove almost 50% of the UK’s total industrial cluster emissions. Award of this Agreement for Lease marks another important step in the development of the Northern Endurance Partnership CO2 transport and storage system, and accelerates the efforts being made to decarbonise the UK’s industrial heartlands. We welcome The Crown Estate’s support on that journey.”

Supporting CCS
The Crown Estate says the announcement demonstrates its commitment to supporting new technologies such as CCS, offshore wind and hydrogen which will play a vital role in meeting the nation’s net zero targets. “As managers of the seabed around England, Wales and Northern Ireland, The Crown Estate supports the growth of these industries in a holistic, joined-up way, working with a wide range of industries, experts, data and digital mapping capabilities to ensure that the varied, growing and sometimes competing demands on an ever busier seabed are co-ordinated for the benefit of net zero, energy security and nature recovery.”

The UK is recognized as having some of the world’s best natural resources for CCS, a technology which has the potential to deliver environmental, economic and social value for the country by supporting hard to abate generation and heavy industries to remove emissions from the atmosphere and creating new jobs in communities in industrial heartlands. The Crown Estate is helping to accelerate this technology by: