Acorn CCS granted North Sea storage licenses

Acorn CCS joint venture partners were granted licenses from the North Sea Transition Authority for Acorn East and East Mey CO₂ storage, expanding the transport and storage system’s capacity beneath the North Sea to around 240 megatonnes (Mt) of CO₂.

Acorn CCS is developing decarbonization projects in Scotland, repurposing legacy oil and gas infrastructure to transport CO₂ emissions from the Scottish Cluster--a collection of industrial, power, and hydrogen businesses in the Central Belt and North East Scotland—to permanent storage 100 km offshore in geological formations 2.5 km below the seabed (OGJ Online, July 31, 2023). The system is expected to store at least 5Mt/yr of CO₂ by 2030.

Before 2030, the Scottish Cluster could include nine different UK CO2 sources spanning a variety of high-emitting sectors including industrial sites and power generation plants, as well as new hydrogen generation plant technology. Primary early sources of CO₂ include two of the gas terminals at the St Fergus Gas Complex, SSE E&P UK Ltd., and Equinor ASA’s Peterhead Carbon Capture Power Station, a new blue hydrogen plant supplying INEOS Group Ltd. and Petroineos sites at Grangemouth, and ExxonMobil Corp. and Shell plc’s infrastructure at Mossmorran.

Storegga Ltd. is operator of the Acorn project. Shell plc, Harbour Energy PLC, and North Sea Midstream Partners Ltd. are partners.