ExxonMobil eyes UK CCS projects
ExxonMobil has signed a memorandum of understanding to become a customer of the Acorn carbon capture and storage project (CCS) at St Fergus in Scotland, it said July 16. It operates the SEGAL terminal and two related offshore wet gas lines jointly with Acorn partner Shell.
The US major said it was advancing plans for numerous CCS opportunities around the world and said CCS was "one of the most important technologies required to achieve society’s climate goals.”
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ExxonMobil has also joined NECCUS, an alliance of industry, government and academic experts committed to reducing carbon emissions from industrial facilities in Scotland. These emissions would also be injected offshore Scotland, under the Acorn plan.
And Acorn has signed another MoU with the operator of the Frigg UK A line (FUKA), the North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP), which lands gas and condensate from fields West of Shetland at St Fergus. Acorn said the companies were working towards a formal agreement to become the first customers for the Acorn CCS project.
NSMP said it was very pleased to have signed the MoU as part of its support for the North Sea transition deal and its objective to play a leading role in the journey to net zero carbon emissions.
St Fergus processes 35% of the natural gas that feeds into the National Grid. Most of the gas is associated with oil production. Emissions from the two plants would be transported through existing pipelines to be reinjected into rock formations beneath the seabed.
Acorn says it has the potential to provide more than half of the 10mn metric tons (mt)/yr of CO2 storage the UK government is targeting by 2030. This could more than double to above 20mn mt/yr by the mid-2030s.
NECCUS said it welcomed ExxonMobil to its alliance. "Decarbonising industrial emissions will be a challenging but essential part of meeting the national 2045 net-zero target. We believe Scotland is well placed to deliver on technologies such as carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen, which are necessary to achieve a net-zero industrial cluster. Collaboration across the organisations within NECCUS will be essential to this ambition, and the experience ExxonMobil brings will enhance this collaboration.”
Acorn selected July 15 the front-end engineering design contractor for the project.