Harbour Energy and bp have entered into an agreement to develop the Viking CCS transportation and storage project.
Under the terms of the agreement, Harbour continues as the operator of Viking CCS with a 60% interest, with bp acquiring a 40% non-operated share, bringing together two of the most experienced operators in the North Sea. Located close to the heavily industrialised Humber region, Viking CCS 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 announcement follows the UK Government’s recent decision to launch Track 2 of its CCS cluster sequencing process, and its recognition that Viking CCS is one of two leading transport and storage system contenders for this process.
The delivery of the Viking project could be transformational for the region, potentially unlocking up to GBP 7bn of investment across the full CO2 capture, transport, and storage value chain over the next decade, creating over 10,000 jobs during construction, and providing an estimated GBP 4bn of gross value add (GVA) to the Humber and its surrounding areas.
Harbour and bp already share an interest in the Lincolnshire Offshore Gas Gathering System (LOGGS) pipeline which is intended to be repurposed as part of the project. This provides a unique, low-cost opportunity to connect customers to the depleted Viking gas fields, which recently had their 300 million tonnes of CO2 storage capacity independently verified.