Harbour Energy’s Viking CCS CO2 transport and storage network has begun the statutory consultation phase of the development consent order for its 55-km onshore pipeline. The company has already been consulting with local communities, with the newly launched process intended to provide more detailed information regarding the pipeline and its route.
Viking CCS plans to submit a planning application for the onshore pipeline, which will reuse existing line, during first-half 2023. The next major milestone would be the start of construction in 2025, which would support completion and startup as early as 2027.
The system will move captured CO2 from the Immingham, North East Lincolnshire, UK, industrial area to the site of the former Theddlethorpe gas terminal (TGT) on the Lincolnshire coast. From TGT, the CO2 will be transported 140 km to the depleted Viking gas fields, 9,000 ft beneath the Southern North Sea seabed, for permanent storage.
Harbour describes the onshore pipeline as a key component in the infrastructure needed to decarbonize and rejuvenate the industries of the Humber Esturary, targeting a 10-million tonne/year reduction in emissions by 2030. The UK government has granted Viking CCS nationally significant infrastructure project (NSIP) status and both it and Harbour expect it to make a material contribution to the UK’s net-zero emissions targets.
UK Oil and Gas Authority last year awarded a license to Harbour for what was then called V Net Zero (OGJ Online, Oct. 14, 2021).
Phillips 66 Co. is developing what could become the first-ever industrial-scale carbon capture project executed within a refinery at its affiliate’s 221,000 b/d Humber plant, with front-end engineering and design work awarded to Worley Ltd. expected to be complete by end-2023 (OGJ Online, Sept. 5, 2022).
