The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has selected 12 companies to award them 20 carbon storage licences at offshore sites in the United Kingdom’s first-ever carbon storage licensing round. The auction was launched in June 2022 and attracted 26 bids. Successful companies include EnQuest, which has secured the offer of carbon storage licences within application areas known as Northern North Sea 1 and Northern North Sea 2. These sites are deep storage formations connected by significant existing infrastructure to the Sullom Voe Terminal in Shetland. EnQuest plans to have CO2 shipped to SVT in liquid form and then utilise the existing jetties at the terminal before being transported via the existing East of Shetland pipeline for injection and permanent storage offshore. The project could initially be capable of storing 10 MtCO2/year.
The 20 licences in total, including some near Aberdeen, Teesside, Liverpool and Lincolnshire, are around 12,000 km2 in size. They comprise a range of geological store types and were selected following a process, which considered attributes such as the geology, proximity to existing infrastructure and links to industrial clusters which are expecting carbon storage to help meet decarbonisation goals. Once the new storage sites are in operation, which could occur within six years in certain instances, they could make a significant contribution to the aim of storing up to 30 MtCO2/year by 2030, approximately 10% of total UK annual emissions, which were 341.5 million tonnes in 2021.
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