Morecambe carbon storage project enters the ‘Assess Phase’

Centrica subsidiary Spirit Energy’s Morecambe Net Zero (MNZ) Peak Cluster development in the East Irish Sea area has moved a step closer to enactment.

The company claims this will be the world’s largest cement decarbonization project, potentially decarbonizing 40% of the UK’s cement and lime industry.

Britain’s North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) has confirmed that Spirit Energy has successfully entered the "Assess Phase" of its carbon storage license (CS010). This represents a major step toward preparing a permit application to safely inject CO₂ emissions in the depleted offshore North and South Morecambe fields, the company said, once gas production ceases toward the end of the decade.

It follows three years of studies by Spirit Energy’s subsurface, wells, projects, HSE, commercial and engineering teams, including new high-resolution 3D seismic acquisition and 3D seismic imaging of the Morecambe fields to demonstrate their fitness for storing about 1 billion metric tons of CO₂.

Shearwater Geoservices acquired the seismic data over a 500-sq-km offshore area.

MNZ Peak Cluster and partners would transport 3 MMmt of CO₂ per year from four cement and lime plants in Derbyshire and Staffordshire, central England to the depleted offshore gas fields.

Centrica CEO Chris O’Shea said, “By repurposing the Morecambe fields for carbon storage, we can put existing infrastructure to work again, helping secure the future of essential British industry while making real progress towards net zero.”

Spirit Energy’s Director of Energy Transition, Decommissioning and Projects, Matt Browell-Hook, added that this is the UK’s first carbon capture and storage project to secure investment from the National Wealth Fund “and potentially the largest offshore carbon store in the UK.”