UK and Eni to Start Construction of Liverpool Bay Carbon Storage Project

The Liverpool Bay CCS project which is a key element of the UK’s HyNet Cluster designed to support industry in the North West of England and North Wales cleared its financial hurdles and will move into construction. The project is a partnership between Italian energy major Eni and the UK Government to support what is being called one of the world’s most advanced CCS clusters.

The UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband, and Eni CEO, Claudio Descalzi, announced that they have reached the financial close for the project. The UK Government had previously announced its funding allocation of £21.7 billion ($29 billion) to be invested over 25 years across the first two CCS Clusters in the country. Eni will be the operator of the CO2 transport and storage system of the HyNet Industrial Cluster.

UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Ed Miliband called this the “launch of a whole new clean energy industry for our country,” citing the job creation and support for the industrial sectors of the UK. He said it would kickstart growth and support the UK’s industrial competitiveness for the long term.

The Liverpool Bay CCS project will operate as the backbone of the HyNet Cluster to transport carbon dioxide from capture plants across the North West of England and North Wales through new and repurposed infrastructure to permanent storage in Eni’s depleted natural gas reservoirs, located under the seabed in Liverpool Bay. The project foresees the repurposing of part of the offshore platforms as well as 149 km of onshore and offshore pipelines, and the construction of 35 km of new pipelines to connect industrial emitters to the Liverpool Bay CCS network.

It is designed to support industrial operations including companies involved in cement manufacturing, and energy from waste plants, as well as supporting the growth of low-carbon hydrogen production in the region. The HyNet Consortium aims to become one of the first low-carbon clusters in the world.

The project will have a storage capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of CO2?per year in the first phase, and the potential to increase to 10 million tonnes of CO2?per year in the 2030s. It will be used to address the needs of industries that currently do not have efficient and effective solutions for their carbon emissions.

Construction of the project is expected to commence this year, ready for planned start-up in 2028, in line with industrial emitters in the HyNet Cluster.