SUMMARY

The initiative will decarbonise industrial processes in the southeast of England and the Thames Estuary area, near London.

By Shardul Sharma

Eni on November 21 announced the launch of the Bacton Thames Net Zero (BTNZ) Cooperation Agreement with the aim of decarbonising industrial processes in the southeast of England and the Thames Estuary area, near London, by means of capturing and storing carbon dioxide.

The initiative will decarbonise a number of sectors including power generation and waste disposal, Eni said. The project will capture, transport, and store 6mn metric tons/year growing up to 10mn mt/yr of carbon dioxide emitted from the Bacton, wider Thames Estuary and potentially north-west European regions into the Hewett depleted gas field, located 20 miles off the North Norfolk Coast in the North Sea; a site with the capacity to store 330mn mt of carbon dioxide.

For Hewett, Eni UK applied to the NSTA (North Sea Transition Authority) for CO2 license storage in September. The license award announcement is expected within Q1 2023. The project is expected to be operational as early as 2027 and aims to support the UK government’s net-zero strategy, which targets capturing 20-30mn mt/yr of carbon dioxide across the UK by 2030.

The BTNZ initiative has been convened by Eni UK and is supported by members including Cadent, Cory, Enfinium, MVV Environment, Progressive Energy, Summit Energy Evolution (a Sumitomo Corporation Company), North London Waste Authority, SSE Thermal, Interconnector and Fluxys.