Teesside set to embrace biggest single investment since ICI

EPC contracts worth £4bn announced; Costain creates digital record of industry assets

CONTRACTS worth a combined £4bn (US$5bn) are to be awarded for the UK’s East Coast Cluster carbon capture scheme, including work on the power plant, CO2 gathering systems, and subsea injection systems.

Ben Houchen, mayor of Tees Valley, said: “This would be the single biggest investment in Teesside since ICI. It cannot be understated the transformational economic impact this will have right across Teesside, Darlington, and Hartlepool. Our area is now the world-leading centre in developing the clean, green industries of the future, which most importantly will deliver the highly skilled well-paid jobs of the future.”

The contractors have been selected by Net Zero Teesside (NZT) Power, which is planning a gas-fired power station with carbon capture, and the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) which is building the infrastructure to transport and store 4m t/y of CO2 from the power plant and the region’s heavy industry.Before the engineering, procurement and construction contracts are made final, the projects must clear regulatory

hurdles and secure final investment decisions from their owners, which is expected to happen before October. Commercial operations are then scheduled from 2027.

Who got what?

Technip Energies has been selected to play a central role in constructing the combined cycle plant for NZT Power. It is leading a consortium in which GE Vernova will provide the plant’s turbines and generators while Technip will provide the carbon capture plant using Shell’s Cansolv CO2 capture technology.

Up to 2m t/y of CO2 will be captured from the 860 MW NZT Power plant, which will then be stored in the North Sea via NEP’s infrastructure.
Costain has been chosen to handle the onshore CO2-gathering systems and associated utilities. The company recently completed front-end engineering design (FEED) for elements of the decarbonisation project.

The contract for the onshore and offshore line pipe will be awarded to Marubeni-Itochu Tubulars Europe with Liberty Steel Hartlepool, Corinth Pipeworks, and Eisenbau Kramer as the nominated pipe mills. Saipem will be handed the contract for offshore pipeline, landfalls, onshore outlet facilities, and water outfall.

The remaining contractors are TechnipFMC for the offshore subsea injection system; Genesis for offshore systems engineering; and Alcatel Submarine Networks for power and communication cables. Wood has been selected as the integrated project management team.

NEP’s infrastructure would also transport and store CO2 produced at other Teesside-based capture projects including bp’s planned 1 GW blue hydrogen H2Teesside project and BOC’s existing hydrogen production plant. Together these projects would see another 2m t/y of CO2 captured and stored.

NEP has also signed agreements to explore connecting other major CO2 emitters in the region including Sembcorp’s combined heat and power plant, Anglo American’s polyhalite fertiliser facility, and Venator’s gas processing site.

The East Coast Cluster is one of four backed for development by the UK government as it seeks to establish 20–30m t/y of CO2 capture capacity
by 2030.

On the heels of the contractor selection, UK electricity generator RWE announced it has secured a land option in Teesside, advancing its plans for a green hydrogen production plant. Initially, the plant would have an electrolyser of up to 260 MWe and be able to produce up to 5 t/h of green hydrogen.