bp joins Viking/North Sea carbon capture project

Offshore staff

LONDON — bp has agreed to take a 40% interest in the Viking CCS (carbon capture transportation and storage) project on the English east coast.

Harbour Energy will remain project operator with a 60% stake. The planned development is close to the industrialized Humber region.

Recently the UK government acknowledged the project as one of two leading contenders for Track 2 of its CCS cluster sequencing process. The development could trigger up to £7 billion ($8.72 billion) of investment across the CO₂ capture, transport and storage chain over the next decade, creating more than 10,000 jobs during construction.

Harbour and bp are already partners in the Lincolnshire Offshore Gas Gathering System (LOGGS) pipeline in the southern North Sea, which was originally constructed by ConocoPhillips. They plan to repurpose the system to connect to the depleted Viking gas fields, which have an independently verified CO₂ storage capacity of 300 MM metric tons.

The development would also gain access to a proposed new CO₂ shipping terminal at Associated British Ports' Port of Immingham, with potential to transport shipped CO₂ from industrial sources in the UK and internationally to the Viking fields for permanent subsurface storage.

Subject to the outcome of the Track 2 process, FID could occur in 2024 followed by a startup of operations in 2027. By 2030 Viking CCS could store up to 10 MM metric tons per year of CO₂.

04.11.2023