BP Leads Energy Companies in Preparing Two Major UK Carbon Capture Projects | Environment

After decades of extracting fossil fuels from the UK’s North Sea, a consortium of oil companies is gearing up to pump Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions under the seabed to help meet the government’s climate ambitions.

BP has established plans to lead an alliance of energy companies in removing carbon dioxide from factory chimneys under new plans in which nearly half of the UK’s industrial emissions will be stored under the North Sea by 2026.

The veteran North Sea oil extractor is leading a partnership that includes Italian state oil company Eni, Norway’s Equinor, National Grid, Royal Dutch Shell and French energy company Total in a plan to transport 17 million tons of carbon dioxide. each year by two separate carbon capture projects based in the industrial districts of Teesside and Humber on the east coast of England.

In Teesside, BP will work with the same oil companies, in a separate company, to capture up to 10 million tons of carbon dioxide per year from the industrial cluster – equivalent to the same emissions produced by the energy used by 3 million homes in the United Kingdom – from the mid 1920s.

Meanwhile, at Humber a separate alliance including National Grid, Equinor and the Drax power generator hopes to capture at least 17 million tonnes of CO₂ from hundreds of refineries, factories and the Drax coal-fired power plant.

The new alliance will manage the pipes and storage facility needed to transport emissions from both industrial zones and will dispose of nearly 50% of the UK’s industrial emissions in salt caves under the North Sea seabed.

Andy Lane, BP’s head of carbon capture solutions, said the project represents a “significant milestone” towards developing the offshore infrastructure needed to safely store carbon and the “willingness of the oil industry to unite and collaborate wherever possible “to contribute to UK climate goals.

Carbon capture and storage are seen as vital to the UK’s legally binding goal of creating a zero-emissions economy by 2050. It would also be “virtually impossible” for the world to achieve its climate goals without it, according to the International Energy Agency.

There are still only 20 projects in commercial use worldwide, but the IEA believes plans for more than 30 commercial carbon capture facilities have come forward over the past three years, representing a potential investment of approximately $ 27 billion. (£ 20.7 billion).

The UK government has pledged £ 800 million to decarbonise at least two heavy industry ‘carbon clusters’, the first in 2025 and the second by 2030, missing the demands of the government’s official independent parliamentarians and climate advisors. climate change committee launch more carbon capture projects within the next five years.

The Northern Endurance Alliance has applied for funding for the £ 170 million Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge launched around this time last year. The support is part of the £ 4.7 billion Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund set up by the government to address the biggest obstacles to the UK’s future productivity and earning capacity.