(Tiper Stock Exchange) – Eni, as the operator of HyNet North West’s carbon dioxide transportation and storage, it positions itself as a leading operator for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects in the UK. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) of the United Kingdom – announces the company in a note – has communicated the list of CO2 emission capture projects that will access the funds, equal to 20 billion pounds, allocated for initiatives in Track 1, foreseen by the Government to accelerate the decarbonisation of the country: of the 8 selected projects, 5 belong to the HyNet North West Consortium (out of 7 presented), in which Eni is the operator for the transport and storage of CO2. The other 3 selected projects pertain to the other CCS East Coast Cluster hub (out of 14 presented) at the east coast of England.
With this decision the United Kingdom confirms itself as one of the leading countries for the development of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The CCS is a technological process that allows to avoid the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from industrial activities and
it plays a fundamental role in the decarbonisation of “hard to abbot” sectors, for which there are currently no other equally effective solutions. Precisely for this reason the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) in its recent 2023 report
defined CCS as an essential technology to achieve global climate goals. There IEA (International Energy Agency) estimates that CCS will help reduce 10% of total emissions to be reduced over the next 30 years, reaching a value of 6.2 billion tons captured in 2050.
The making of 5 projects selected within the HyNet consortium, will contribute to the decarbonisation of the activities of large emitting companies in the industrial area of North West England, in the cement, “Waste to Energy” and low carbon footprint hydrogen production sectors. The volume of CO2 that will be captured within the first 5 selected projects, equal to approximately 3 million tonnes per year, will then be collected, transported and stored permanently by Eni in its depleted gas fields off the coast of the bay of Liverpool, deposits which have a total storage capacity of approximately 200 million tonnes.
The HyNet project will transform one of the UK’s most energy-intensive industrial districts into the world’s first low-carbon industrial cluster. HyNet is expected to start up in the middle of the current decade with an injection rate of around 4.5 million per year in the first phase and then reach around 10 million tonnes per year of CO2 starting in 2030. The volume of CO2 avoided into the atmosphere represents a significant share of the 20-30 million target of reducing industrial emissions associated with the CCS by the UK government and the project will also contribute 40% to the national target of producing 10GW of low carbon hydrogen. In addition to the environmental benefits, HyNet CCS will promote a new impetus to the development of the region thanks to investments for the development of projects and the creation of new jobs linked to the promotion of new production chains. From an employment point of view, the project will allow the preservation of current levels and at the same time will favor the creation of around 56,000 new jobs in the period 2022-2030 in the Liverpool Bay area.
Furthermore, eni recently submitted to the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) the application for a carbon dioxide storage license in the depleted Hewett gas field, which affects an area located in the southern British North Sea and
where the company plans to develop a further CCS project which will contribute to the decarbonisation of the Bacton and Thames Estuary area in the country. Hewett’s depleted and no longer productive gas field is an ideal site for warehousing
permanent CO2 thanks to a storage capacity of over 300 million tons of CO2.
“Eni – comments the company in the note – is proud to support the UK Government’s strategy to contribute to the decarbonisation of the industry through a safe and mature technology such as CCS which adds to other important initiatives for the energy transition such as, for example example, the project for the production of renewable energy from the Dogger Bank offshore wind farm”.