United Kingdom – The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has granted bp and Equinor carbon storage (CS) licenses with an eight-year appraisal period.
Before applying for a storage permit, the licensees must demonstrate progress toward milestones such as performing seismic surveys of the four proposed storage sites and drilling wells to collect data.
The four storage facilities are about 70 kilometers (43 miles) off the coast of Humberside. They could eventually contribute to the storage of up to 23 Mtpa of CO2 around 1,400 m beneath the seabed if combined with the existing Endurance carbon store license. The government’s goal for carbon capture, utilization, and storage is to reach 20-30 Mtpa by 2030 and more than 50 Mtpa by 2035.
Carbon storage
NSTA now manages six CS licenses on the UKCS, after awarding five in 2018 and agreeing to transfer a sixth. Given the progress already seen in the HyNet, Northern Endurance Partnership’s East Coast Cluster, and V Net Zero Humber Cluster projects, the earliest injection from a CS project could come as soon as 2025.
The NSTA, The Crown Estate, and Crown Estate Scotland recently released a Joint Statement in which they pledged to continue working together to realize the potential of carbon storage.
