ExxonMobil and Royal Dutch Shell have signed an MoU to be the customer of the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CSS) project in northeast Scotland. Acorn aims to be the first large-scale CSS project to be operational in the UK by the middle of this decade. The project plans to capture and store carbon emitted by the St Fergus terminals, which accounts for about a third of the kingdom’s total natural gas demand coming ashore.
The MoU includes carbon emitted from a terminal at St Fergus owned jointly by Exxon and Shell. Acorn also signed an MoU with North Stream Midstream Partners, which owns a terminal in St Fergus. North Stream is backed by the Kuwait Investment Authority and the JPMorgan Infrastructure Investments Fund. This means that two of three terminals at St Fergus have joined the Acorn initiative.
Earlier this month, Ineos signed an MoU with the Acorn project. The company operates the Grangemouth refinery and petrochemical complex as well as the Forties Pipeline System. The Acorn project aims to attract more customers from a cluster of industrial hubs near the North Sea, which contribute to around 80% of Scotland’s industrial carbon emissions. Acorn also aims to produce hydrogen from natural gas to feed into the UK gas network.
