Led by Harbour Energy (as operator, 60% interest), with partner BP (40% non-operating share since earlier this year), the Viking CCS project is a CO₂ transport and storage network located in the Humber, the UK’s most industrialised region. Viking CCS is targeting first CO₂ storage as early as 2027, with a reduction of 10mn t/y of UK emissions by 2030 and up to 15mn t/y by 2035.

The project partners suggest that Viking CCS could be key to establishing a world-leading CCS industry in the UK and meeting the government’s net zero emissions targets. The partners plan for Viking CCS to equip the Humber with high-capacity, low-carbon infrastructure that will promote inward investment and attract new industries, as well as create and safeguard jobs in the area.

Cluster members include Associated British Ports (ABP), Phillips 66, renewables supplier RWE, power company VPI and West Burton Energy. The Viking CCS project is anticipated to stimulate significant benefits for the Humber region by decarbonising existing industrial assets with a new build of strategic power and environmentally sustainable plants.

The proposed development of infrastructure, from advanced emissions capture technology to a pipeline network and a state-of-the-art shipping import terminal at Immingham, will support cost-effective sequestration of CO₂ emissions in Harbour Energy’s high-capacity CO₂ storage sites in the southern North Sea. Where possible, the Viking CCS project will re-use existing infrastructure.

Harbour Energy’s Viking CCS project is estimated to have 300mn tonnes of storage in depleted Viking oil and gas fields in the southern North Sea.

Viking CCS Humber industrial cluster
Source: Viking CCS

Development status 
Subject to the outcome of Track 2 of the UK government’s cluster sequencing process, a final investment decision (FID) is expected in 2024. Following the necessary processes, business model support and FIDs, construction could start in 2025. The project could be operational by 2027, storing up to 10mn t/y CO₂ by 2030 and up to 15mn t/y CO₂ by 2035.

Investment over the 10-year period from 2025–2035 is expected to be up to £7bn in both new and upgraded infrastructure in the Humber region, offering a significant opportunity for the UK supply chain and service sector. Furthermore, the low-carbon infrastructure is hoped to attract new low-carbon industries to the region.

The cluster partners suggest that the Viking CCS Cluster could unlock investment across the full CO₂ capture, transport and storage value chain over the next decade, and support the development of new critical infrastructure and low-carbon industries, which when developed could provide a route to an estimated £4bn of gross value add (GVA).

The Viking CCS project promises to make a major contribution to the UK government’s ambitious net zero targets, subject to the necessary processes, business model support and FIDs.

Infrastructure  
Cluster members aim to capture over 90% of the CO₂ emitted by their industrial partners, removing it at source by adsorption and separation, so it can be routed directly to a pipeline for transport to secure subsea storage offshore.

As part of the project, Harbour Energy will repurpose the 118 km Lincolnshire Offshore Gas Gathering System (LOGGS) pipeline, which connects to the now depleted Viking gas fields. Construction of a new, buried 55 km onshore pipeline will transport the captured CO₂ from the Humber region to the former Theddlethorpe gas terminal, which will be repurposed to connect the on- and offshore pipelines. An additional new spur line will carry the CO₂ for the final 20 km of its journey to storage 2.7 km below the seabed.

Harbour Energy commissioned ERCE, an integrated energy consultancy, to independently verify the storage capacity of the Viking CCS project, confirming that 300mn tonnes of storage capacity is located 140 km offshore in the Southern North Sea, far beneath the seabed in depleted oil and gas fields, providing a high-strength barrier to permanently lock away the captured CO₂.

The Viking CCS project promises to make a major contribution to the UK government’s ambitious net zero targets, subject to the necessary processes, business model support and final investment decisions.

Partner plans 
Harbour Energy and ABP plan to develop a CO₂ import terminal at the Port of Immingham. The terminal will provide a large-scale facility to connect stranded CO₂ emissions from industrial companies around the UK to the high-capacity CO₂ storage sites in the Southern North Sea. Viking is working with ABP to invest in a new high capacity and deepwater jetty at its Immingham port facility to handle liquid bulk products, including ammonia.

The terminal, which would connect to the Viking CCS pipeline, would allow dispersed CO₂ emitters from elsewhere in the UK without access to geological storage, such as around the south coast and in Wales, to ship their emissions for storage and sequestration within the depleted Viking gas fields.  

RWE is the largest operator of combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants in the UK, with a 7 GW gas fleet containing a 2.8 GW renewables portfolio. RWE has begun technical studies to investigate the feasibility of retrofitting carbon capture technology at Staythorpe and has started to develop innovative CCGT plant equipped with carbon capture technology near the Humber. Together, these projects could capture and remove around 6mn t/y of CO₂.

The Viking CCS project partners maintain that early deployment of the project can help unlock the UK’s competitive advantage and economic opportunity for CO₂ storage in high-quality sites in the UK Continental Shelf. Providing both the high-capacity transportation infrastructure for future expansion and demonstrating the safe long-term storage of CO₂. Viking CCS could also create a new market for the import of non-UK CO₂ emissions for geological storage.

Meanwhile, Humber Zero (VPI Immingham and Phillips 66) is seen as a world-scale series of projects which aim to reduce the carbon emissions of critical industry in the Immingham industrial area using carbon capture. The project aims to remove 8mn t/y of CO₂ from the Immingham industrial region.

VPI Immingham (one of Europe’s largest combined heat and power facilities, with a capacity of 1.3 GW) aims to retrofit two of its gas and steam turbines with CCS, capturing up to 3.4mn t/y of CO₂ by 2027. Phillips 66’s Humber refinery is also developing new lower carbon business streams.

West Burton B is a highly flexible and efficient CCGT plant with a combined output of 1.3 GW of energy, including 49 MW of battery storage capacity. West Burton Energy intends to deploy post-combustion technology to capture up to 90% of its carbon emissions and proposes to include hydrogen co-firing and further electricity storage facilities.

Track 2 sequence 
The UK government recently launched Track 2 of its CCS cluster sequencing process. As part of the Track 2 launch, the government stated that it views the Acorn and Viking CCS transport and storage systems as able to meet the Track 2 eligibility criteria.

The Track 2 process will identify the ‘best placed’ CCS clusters to start negotiations on the enduring business models, regulations and licences needed to progress to FID. However, it is important to note that the outcome of Track 2 will not be based on a government grant or subsidy, but rather the ability to negotiate the commercial terms for CCS projects, finalise the business models to support their deployment and long-term commercial operation. It is, therefore, a necessary and critical step to securing FIDs across the full CCS value chain.

The Viking CCS Cluster can enable significant economic and inward investment opportunities across the Humber region, through access to CCS infrastructure and long-life industrial decarbonised assets. This was highlighted in a recent report from Harbour Energy, which outlined the pivotal role the cluster can in play in transforming the Humber through carbon capture and storage.

The project is forecast to create new opportunities for skilled employment for up to 10,000 people while also safe-guarding 20,000 industrial jobs potentially. Key opportunities include developing markets for the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing supply chain, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and flexible and dispatchable power generation that can supplement weather-dependent renewables, in support of a vibrant, new, lower-carbon industrial ecosystem.

Viking CCS plans to equip the Humber with high-capacity, reliable low-carbon assets to promote inward investment and attract new industries to the area. As a prime example, RWE is examining options to build a new gas-fired power station on the South Humber Bank.

It’s a heady mix. The Viking CCS project is rich with business and sustainable investment opportunities. It offers the combination of a high-capacity CO₂ transport and storage network, development of a new CO₂ import hub at the Port of Immingham, together with the introduction of new low-carbon electricity supply, along with world-class offshore wind and abated gas-fired power. The cluster partners suggest that the Humber has the potential to become the heart of a new regional low-carbon investment hub.