Harbour Energy, Bp To Develop Viking CCS Transportation And Storage Project

(RTTNews) - Scottish oil and gas firm Harbour Energy Plc (HBR.L) and British energy major BP plc (BP.L, BP_UN.TO, BP) announced Tuesday that they have entered into an agreement to develop the Viking CCS transportation and storage project.

Under the deal terms, Harbour continues as operator of Viking CCS with a 60 percent interest, with bp acquiring a 40 percent non-operated share.

Viking CCS, located close to the heavily industrialised Humber region, has the potential to meet one third of the UK Government's target to capture and store up to 30 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030.

The latest agreement follows the UK Government's recent decision to launch Track 2 of its CCS cluster sequencing process, and its recognition of Viking CCS as a major transport and storage system contender for this process.

Subject to the outcome of the Track 2 Cluster Sequencing Process, a final investment decision is expected in 2024. The project could be operational as early as 2027 and potentially storing up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030.

The companies noted that the delivery of the Viking project could be transformational for the region, potentially unlocking up to 7 billion pounds of investment across the full CO2 capture, transport, and storage value chain over the next decade. This is expected to create over 10,000 jobs during construction. It would also provide an estimated 4 billion pounds of gross value add or GVA to the Humber and its surrounding areas.

Anja Dotzenrath, Executive Vice President of Gas and Low Carbon Energy bp, said, "We're extremely excited to be joining Viking CCS, a project which can play an instrumental role in helping to decarbonise the UK and providing CO2 transport and storage as a service to emitters across industry sectors and geographies, including as a future CO2 shipping destination."