Britain green lights NEP’s first North Sea carbon storage appraisal well
Britain’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has issued consent to the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) to drill a carbon storage appraisal well in the UK southern North Sea.
NEP is a consortium comprising bp, Equinor and TotalEnergies. The well, which was due to spud on March 1 offshore the Teesside coast, northern England, forms part of the Endurance project.
This will inject and store CO2 captured from multiple local industries in a deep saline acquifer that is 145 km offshore.
Last summer, NEP operator bp awarded Noble Corp. a drilling contract for use of the Noble Innovator rig for six firm CO2 injection wells and two optional wells. The rig was due to start drilling operations this summer.
Among other contracts issued at the time, Expro was assigned delivery of integrated well testing services for two wells in the Endurance reservoir for future CCS suitability, using its in-house well testing, fluid sampling and analysis, and subsea technologies.
In January this year, NEP and the UK’s Crown Estate signed what was said to be Britain’s first commercial-scale lease of the seabed for permanent offshore CO2 storage and associated pipeline infrastructure.
The lease will continue until injection at the store is completed, currently anticipated in the mid‑2050s.
About the Author
Jeremy Beckman
Editor, Europe
Jeremy Beckman has been Editor Europe, Offshore since 1992. Prior to joining Offshore he was a freelance journalist for eight years, working for a variety of electronics, computing and scientific journals in the UK. He regularly writes news columns on trends and events both in the NW Europe offshore region and globally. He also writes features on developments and technology in exploration and production.