Another seismic firm joins UK carbon capture, utilisation and storage project

BP, on behalf of the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), has awarded Shearwater GeoServices with a contract for geophysical data processing and imaging to advance the East Coast Cluster carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) project.

Shearwater’s UK Processing & Imaging centre will execute seismic data processing and imaging activity over a period of approximately eight months.

Multisensor geophysical data will be passed through advanced algorithms, tests and analyses to provide a dataset that will enable NEP to characterize subsurface structures with potential for carbon storage.

The project will use Shearwater’s Reveal software and Monsoon digital cloud program to execute the work, with collaboration between bp and Shearwater personnel throughout the project.

NEP, a partnership between BP, National Grid Ventures, Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, enables the East Coast Cluster by providing the common infrastructure needed to transport CO₂ from emitters in the Humber and Teesside. The CO₂ will then be securely sequestered in the Endurance carbon store in the North Sea.

“The Southern North Sea has some of the most ideal carbon storage sites anywhere in the world, and the East Coast Cluster has the capacity to store up to 1 billion tonnes of CO₂. We are aiming for first injection from 2026, and by 2038 will be capturing and storing up to 23 million tonnes of CO₂ per year from a wide range of industrial and power projects on Teesside and the Humber,” said Andy Lane, NEP’s managing director.

“We look forward to working with Shearwater on this first-of-a-kind carbon storage project that will create thousands of jobs and help establish the Teesside and Humber regions as a globally-competitive climate-friendly hub for industry and innovation.”

The East Coast Cluster was named as one of the UK’s first CCUS clusters following a successful bid in Phase-1 of the UK Government’s CCUS cluster sequencing process in October 2021.

This March, 25 projects within the East Coast Cluster were shortlisted for evaluation within Phase-2 of the cluster sequencing process.

The projects, covering power, industrial carbon capture (ICC) and hydrogen, were adjudged to have met the eligibility criteria. The projects will now be evaluated, with an update on successful bids expected from July.

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