20/12/2023 – The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) – the CO2 transportation and storage provider for the East Coast Cluster – has reached agreement on the key commercial principles through the Heads of Terms with the UK Government’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) on terms for the regulated Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) business model.
Agreement on the key conditions for economic, regulatory and governance models of the transportation and storage of CO2 is an important step forward for the East Coast Cluster, paving the way for the completion of final agreements in the coming months. The NEP, which will provide the common infrastructure needed to connect the industrial power-house regions of the Humber and Teesside to CO2 storage sites in the UK southern North Sea, intends to take Final Investment Decision (FID) in September 2024.
DESNZ also reaffirmed commitment to the expansion of the East Coast Cluster and will now consider the best timing for launching an expansion process from 2024, based on an assessment of store readiness beginning in the New Year and subject to affordability.
Todays announcement comes as the UK Government publishes the CCUS Vision, setting out a long-term strategy for the UK’s CCUS industry to be able to store over 50Mt a year by 2035 to support the decarbonisation of domestic industries and take advantage of export opportunities.
The ECC was selected as a Track-1 cluster in Phase-1 of the cluster sequencing process in October 2021 and is set to become one of the UK’s first two CCUS clusters. In March 2023, three projects – Net Zero Teesside Power, H2 Teesside, and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture – were selected by DESNZ for potential first connection to the East Coast Cluster from 2027. The ECC has the potential to eventually transport and securely store an average of around 23 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2035 – around 50% of all UK industrial cluster emissions.
Chris Daykin, NEP General Manager, said: “Today’s announcements mark another positive milestone in the development of the East Coast Cluster and the UK CCUS industry. Agreeing the key commercial principles through the Heads of Terms is a crucial step in the decarbonisation of the region and delivering jobs. We thank the UK Government for their continued support as we work to complete the final agreements in the coming months, enabling NEP to take Final Investment Decision in September 2024.”
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