New partnership to develop CO2 storage infrastructure in North Sea

BP, Eni, Equinor, National Grid, Shell and Total have formed the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) to develop CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure in the UK North Sea.

BP will be the operator and the infrastructure will serve the Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber industrial decarbonisation projects. If the NEP is linked to the two industrial clusters, it would allow decarbonisation of 50% of the UK’s industrial emissions.

Endurance is the UK’s largest and most well understood saline aquifer for carbon storage. The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has approved the addition of BP and Equinor to the storage licence.

The partnership has submitted a funding bid to the UK Government’s £170m (US$221m) Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, which is part of the £4.7bn Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund.

Andy Lane, Vice President of CCUS solutions at BP and Managing Director for Net Zero Teesside, said: ‎‎“The formation of the Northern Endurance Partnership is another significant milestone towards ‎developing the offshore infrastructure that will be needed to safely transport and store CO₂ from ‎CCUS projects along England’s east coast.” ‎

Grete Tveit, Senior Vice President for low carbon solutions at Equinor, said: “We believe that with our partners in the Humber, ‎Teesside and the Northern Endurance Partnership we can deliver deep decarbonisation of these ‎major UK industrial clusters using CCUS and hydrogen, safeguarding jobs and helping develop world-‎leading low carbon expertise that can play a leading role in the UK’s journey to net zero by 2050.”‎