Offshore staff
ABERDEEN, UK – Shell has signed an agreement with Britain’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to progress the Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project on the coast of northeast Scotland.
The project, supported by SSE, owner of the Peterhead gas power station, is designed to capture 10 million metric tons (11 million tons) of carbon dioxide (CO2) over 10 years.
It will use a post-combustion capture system to extract CO2 from an existing gas turbine unit, and facilities to compress it for pipeline transport, 100 km (62 mi) offshore, for secure geological storage in Shell’s depleted Goldeneye field in the UK central North Sea.
If successful, the program could generate sufficient clean electricity to power the equivalent of 500,000 homes a year. It would also be the first industrial-scale application of CCS technology at a gas power station anywhere in the world, Shell claims.
Ed Daniels, chairman of Shell UK, said: “CCS could be critical to reducing carbon emissions at a time of growing global demand for energy... It could also help diversify theNorth Sea oil and gas industry and so contribute to the sector’s long-term commercial health.”
Front-end engineering and design (FEED) is due to continue until 2015. Assuming positive final investment decisions by Shell and the government and receipt of all relevant consents and permits, the project could be up and running by the end of the decade.
02/24/2014
