AlwaysFree: UK Turns To Big Oil In £20 Billion Carbon Capture Push

• BP is set to be the UK’s biggest carbon capture company
• Storing captured CO2 below the sea is key to UK climate plans

According to Bloomberg article published on March 30, 2023, the UK selected projects from developers including BP Plc and Equinor ASA to enter into negotiations for the country’s first large-scale efforts to capture and store carbon emissions. 

In total, eight projects are set to receive government support to trap carbon from industrial clusters in the north of England. The technology could be a key tool to help the UK reach its goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. Britain plans to spend £20 billion ($24.6 billion) subsidizing the technology in the coming years. 

The projects are from what’s known as the East Coast Cluster in the northeast of England and Hynet in the northwest. Developing multiple carbon capture projects nearby can drive down costs by sharing infrastructure to transport and store CO2 emissions. 

The winners include two projects under development from BP. One is an 860-megawatt power plant known as Net Zero Teesside Power that it’s developing with Equinor. Another is H2Teesside, which aims to produce 1.2 gigawatts of hydrogen by 2030. Both projects in the northeast will rely on offshore transportation and a storage network that would be operated by BP. 

BP plans to take a final investment decision on the two projects next year. The Teesside projects would help advance its low-carbon goals that see hydrogen and carbon-capture as higher-margin sectors of the energy transition. It’s an area where an oil major can leverage its experience with gas and large, complicated projects.

“Teesside represents the transformation we can create as a company for both industries and communities,” said Anja Dotzenrath, BP’s executive vice president of gas and low carbon. “It underpins our ambition to be a global leader in low carbon energy, including green and blue hydrogen as well as carbon capture and storage.”

Other projects selected to advance into government negotiations include a site that will capture carbon from a cement production plant and another from Essar Group that will produce hydrogen. In total, the eight sites would capture more than 7.5 million tons of CO2 per year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from previous company announcements.

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