9th July 2021 – The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) has today submitted a bid supported by major energy and industrial companies to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy’s (BEIS) Cluster sequencing for carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) deployment process.
The bid is on behalf of the East Coast Cluster, a collaboration between leading companies from across Teesside and the Humber which aims to advance the government’s world-leading ambition to establish the first ‘net zero’ carbon industrial cluster in the UK by 2040. These two regions account for nearly 50% of all UK industrial cluster emissions.
By decarbonising such a substantial part of the country’s industrial heartlands, the East Coast Cluster plans to support the UK’s leadership in the energy transition and the emerging global low-carbon and hydrogen markets. The project aims to play a major role in levelling up across the country, with the potential to support an average of more than 25,000 jobs a year between 2023 and 2050.
The East Coast Cluster offers a diverse mix of low-carbon projects, including industrial carbon capture, low-carbon hydrogen production, negative emissions power, and power with carbon capture. The companies in the East Coast Cluster have extensive experience in successfully delivering ambitious and world-leading projects.
NEP is developing the common offshore infrastructure that will transport CO2 from industrial emitters in these regions, most of which are Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber projects, to secure offshore storage in the Endurance aquifer in the Southern North Sea. Feasibility work on these projects is being co-funded by the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK.
In the Queen’s Speech in May 2021, the Government emphasised the importance of levelling-up the UK’s regions. Taking the East Coast Cluster forward is an opportunity, to protect many thousands of existing jobs across Teesside and the Humber, creating thousands of new STEM-based jobs and underpinning new low carbon industries in the north of England. The East Coast Cluster aims to bring together communities, business, industry and academia to deliver the CCUS infrastructure needed to decarbonise these key industrial regions of the UK.
Andy Lane, Managing Director, NEP, said:
“The UK needs to decarbonise industry to reach net zero. Nearly half of all carbon emissions from UK industrial clusters come from the Humber and Teesside, making the East Coast Cluster the single biggest opportunity to decarbonise UK industry.”
“Hundreds of thousands of jobs have relied on the industries which have grown in these regions and the East Coast Cluster, by decarbonising hard-to-abate industries, aims to keep it that way, while developing a platform for UK industry to compete on a global scale.
Grete Tveit, Senior Vice President for Low Carbon Solutions at Equinor, which is a partner of ZCH, NZT and NEP said:
“Carbon capture and storage and hydrogen are both crucial technologies for reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement.”
“To deliver them at scale and create real change we need collaboration like never before. And this is what we are doing with our bid to create the East Coast Cluster, working with our partners in the Humber, Teesside and the Northern Endurance Partnership. We can deliver deep decarbonisation of these major industrial regions and help the UK’s journey to net zero, safeguard jobs and develop world-leading industries.”
Andy Benjamin, Director of CCUS, National Grid Ventures, said:
“The East Coast Cluster offers the scale and diversity to protect and create tens of thousands of jobs across the Humber and Teesside for decades to come, while building a solid foundation to re- establish the region as a globally-competitive climate-friendly hub for industry and innovation.”
Dev Sanyal, Executive Vice President of Gas and Low Carbon Energy, bp, said:
“The NEP, with bp leading as operator, is a partnership of extensive expertise and experience in the delivery and operation of onshore and offshore energy infrastructure.”
“With world-class partners across Teesside and the Humber we have an opportunity to decarbonise this key industrial heartland and enable the UK’s Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution.”
Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, said:
“The success of this project is not only crucial for achieving net zero, but also a way of ensuring good- quality, well-paid jobs are supported across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool for generations to come.”
“The Net Zero Teesside project, which is joining other clean energy initiatives at Teesworks, will position our region as a leader in innovation and the sector. I’m pleased that we can work with our neighbours in the Humber to deliver an even more positive impact for the whole UK.”
”Emma Hardy, MP for Hull West and Hessle, said:
“In the Humber we have many world-leading industries that are looking to cut their emissions to remain competitive in the transition to net zero. The collaboration between the Humber and Teesside in the East Coast Cluster will future proof both industrial regions, tackle half of the UK’s cluster emissions, and create new high-skill, low-carbon jobs for our people.”
“Progressing the East Coast Cluster would show the UK is backing its climate ambitions with actions.”
Media Contact:
N: Jamie Gardiner
E: EastCoastCluster@hkstrategies.com
T: 0207 413 3506
Notes to Editors
Northern Endurance Partnership
bp, Equinor, Eni, National Grid, Shell and TotalEnergies form the Northern Endurance Partnership, a partnership announced in October 2020 to develop offshore carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) transport and storage infrastructure in the UK North Sea, with bp as operator. The infrastructure will serve the proposed Net Zero Teesside and Zero Carbon Humber projects, which aim to establish decarbonised industrial clusters in Teesside and Humber. If both projects fulfil their potential, NEP can enable the decarbonisation of nearly 50% of the UK’s industrial cluster emissions.
Net Zero Teesside
Net Zero Teesside (NZT) is a Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) project, based in Teesside in the North East of England. Proposals for NZT include the Net Zero Teesside Power Station (NZT Power) which will be the UK’s first commercial scale gas fired power station with CCUS.
NZT Power is a joint venture between bp, Eni, Equinor and TotalEnergies with bp leading as operator. A CO2 gathering network, CO2 compression and the onshore section of a CO2 export pipeline on Teesside is proposed by the Northern Endurance Partnership, which will enable the capture, transportation and storage of CO2 from NZT Power and a range of carbon intensive businesses which could include BOC, H2 Teesside, CF Fertilizers, TV ERF, 8Rivers, Suez and Kellas.
NZT could help protect up to 70% of existing jobs in heavy industry on Teesside, and enable many thousands of new, high quality opportunities. NZT aims to capture and store up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, equivalent to the emissions associated with the annual energy use of up to 3 million homes in the UK.
To learn more about Net Zero Teesside, please visit netzeroteesside.co.uk
Zero Carbon Humber
Zero Carbon Humber (ZCH) is leading companies and organisations in a plan to decarbonise the UK’s largest emitting industrial region. ZCH includes ABP, British Steel, Centrica Storage, Drax, Equinor, Mitsubishi Power, National Grid, px Group, SSE Thermal, Triton Power, Uniper and University of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing Centre (AMRC).
The ZCH Partnership have a shared ambition to make the Humber industrial region net zero by 2040 through low carbon hydrogen, carbon capture and carbon removal technology, enabled by shared regional pipelines for hydrogen and carbon emissions and the common offshore NEP infrastructure.
With its first projects aiming to start up in the mid-2020s, ZCH aims to capture at least 17 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year and supply up to 10 gigawatts of hydrogen in industry and power projects across the Humber by the mid-2030s. This could reduce the UK’s annual emissions by 15% and safeguard 55,000 existing jobs in the region, whilst creating thousands of new STEM roles and developing skills, apprenticeships and educational opportunities in the area
To learn more about Zero Carbon Humber, please visit zerocarbonhumber.co.uk
