BP awards studies for north England CCS

BP announced on December 15 that it had selected two consortia to undertake front-end engineering design (FEED) studies for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in north England.

BP is leading the Northern Endurance Partnership and Net Zero Teesside Power projects. The former was recently awarded funding from the UK government, while the latter will apply for this support in January.

Net Zero Teesside Power involves the development of a 860-MW combined-cycle gas turbine power plant that will be fitted with carbon capture capabilities. Around 2mn metric tons/year of CO₂ is expected to be captured at the plant and then delivered offshore for storage under the Northern Endurance project. Using a saline aquifer some 145 km offshore from Teesside, Northern Endurance is expected to store 450mn mt of CO₂ in total.

BP said it had awarded one FEED contract to a partnership between Technip Energies and General Electric. Shell will serve as a subcontractor, providing its licensed Cansolv CO₂ technology, while Balfour Beatty will work as a construction partner.

A second FEED contract is being issued to Aker Solutions, Doosan Babcock and Siemens Energy, with Aker's carbon capture unit set to provide CO₂ capture technology as a sub-contractor.

The work will be completed over the next 12 months, after which the two consortia will submit proposals for engineering, procurement and construction services. Only one group will be selected to take the projects into the construction phase when a final investment decision is taken in 2023.

"This first-of-a-kind project has the ‎potential to deliver enough low carbon, flexible electricity to power around 1.3mn homes, ‎and can help secure Teesside’s position at the green heart of the country’s energy transition," BP's UK head of country and senior vice president for Europe, Louise Kingham, commented.

 Net Zero Teesside Power is a joint venture between BP and Equinor, while Northern Endurance comprises BP, Equinor, National Grid Ventures, Shell and TotalEnergies.