BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies pick 9 contractors for UK’s two ‘vital’ decarbonization projects

BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies have selected nine contractors for engineering, procurement, and construction contracts, with a combined value of around £4 billion, for two projects being developed in Teesside that are said to be vital for the UK’s decarbonization journey.

Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power), a joint venture of BP and Equinor, and the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a joint venture of BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies, have selected nine specialist contractors across eight contract packages for the Teesside-based projects that would contribute to the UK’s journey towards net zero emissions by 2050.

NZT Power aims to be one of the world’s first commercial-scale gas-fired power stations with carbon capture, while NEP aims to build the CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure to serve East Coast Cluster (ECC) carbon capture projects.

“We are delighted to be taking significant steps towards the realisation of these vital decarbonisation projects through the selection of experienced contractors. It marks another major stepping stone on our route towards a final investment decision and ultimately towards a net zero East Coast Cluster,” said Grete Tveit, Senior Vice President at Equinor.

A consortium of Technip Energies and GE Vernova, supported by construction partner Balfour Beatty, received a letter of intent (LoI) from BP, on behalf of NZT Power, to construct a combined cycle plant that will be powered by an advanced GE Vernova 9HA.02 gas turbine, a steam turbine, a generator and a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), which will integrate with a carbon capture plant using Technip Energies’ Canopy by T.EN solution powered by the Shell CANSOLV CO2 capture technology.     

Technip Energies, GE Vernova, and Balfour Beatty, supported by Shell as the technology licensor, are forming the Carbon Capture Alliance (CCA).

Saipem has been appointed for the scope of work that covers the engineering, procurement, construction and installation (EPCI) of a 28” and approximately 145-kilometer offshore pipeline with associated landfalls and onshore outlet facilities for the NEP project, and the EPCI of the water outfall for the NZTP project.

The pipeline offshore operations will be performed by the company’s vessel Castorone, and the nearshore operations will be performed by the shallow water pipelayer Castoro 10.

UK infrastructure business Costain will oversee and manage the engineering procurement and construction of the onshore CO2 gathering system and associated utilities serving the ECC, while TechnipFMC will supply and install an all-electric subsea system, including manifolds, umbilicals, and pipe, which will collect and feed the pressurized gas into an aquifer for permanent storage. 

Alcatel Submarine Networks has been selected for the power and communications cable, Genesis for the offshore systems engineering, Wood for integrated project management, and Marubeni-Itochu Tubulars Europe with Liberty Steel Hartlepool, Corinth Pipeworks and Eisenbau Kramer has been selected for the onshore and offshore linepipe.

The final award of contracts is subject to relevant regulatory clearances and positive final investment decisions (FID), planned for September 2024 or earlier. Following FID, the projects would be aiming for the first commercial operations starting in 2027.

The selected contractors will continue working with the local and regional supply chain, with further engagement taking place over the coming weeks and months.

NZT Power could generate up to 860 MW of flexible, dispatchable low-carbon power equivalent to the average electricity requirements of around 1.3 million UK homes. Up to 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year would be captured at the plant and then transported and stored by the NEP in subsea storage sites beneath the North Sea. NZT Power could create and support more than 3,000 construction jobs and then require around 1,000 jobs annually during operations until 2050.

The Teesside onshore NEP infrastructure would serve the Teesside-based carbon capture projects (CCS) – NZT Power, H2Teesside and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture – that were selected for the first connection to the ECC by DESNZ in March 2023 as part of the UK’s cluster sequencing process for carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS). It is anticipated that around 4 million tonnes of CO2 per year from these projects would be transported and stored from 2027.

The article has been amended to state additional information.