The Agreement will enable Eni UK and industrial partners to work together to accelerate the decarbonisation of industry in the South-East of England and beyond

Eni UK announces the launch of the Bacton Thames Net Zero (BTNZ) Cooperation Agreement with the shared aim of decarbonising industrial processes in the South-East 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. The project will capture, transport, and store 6 million tonnes/year growing up to 10 million tonnes/year 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 330 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.

For Hewett, Eni UK applied to the NSTA (North Sea Transition Authority) for a 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 20-30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year across the UK by 2030.

The BTNZ initiative has been convened by Eni UK, a leader in carbon transportation and storage development in the 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. The participation of Interconnector and Fluxys reflects the potential opportunity for international transport of carbon dioxide. 

Eni UK will play a pivotal role in the project and is already actively planning the transportation and storage of carbon dioxide from its partners to the depleted Hewett gas field. Eni has extensive subsurface knowledge of the field, having operated in the region for many years, and has a successful track record in Carbon Capture and Storage thanks to its work in guiding the HyNet project in the Liverpool Bay area for which a Carbon Capture and Storage licence was awarded to Eni in 2020.

Bacton Thames Net Zero

Bacton Thames Net Zero (BTNZ) is an initiative involving more than 10 substantive entities working within a Cooperation Agreement that aim to substantially decarbonise power and industrial processes in the Bacton and Thames regions.

BTNZ will do this by capturing, transporting and storing at least 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted from these regions per year into the Hewett depleted gas field, off the North Norfolk coast.

Objectives

• Decarbonise and to unlock new greener growth opportunities for the automotive, ceramics, food, materials, energy and waste disposal sectors.
• Target existing and planned carbon emission sources close to Bacton and in the London/Thames estuary area, from which captured carbon can transported to be permanently stored within the Hewett depleted gas field.
• Use interconnecting pipelines between Bacton and Zeebrugge to store both domestic and international carbon dioxide and transport locally-produced Hydrogen.
• Identify regional synergies and opportunities for decarbonisation anchored around the Hewett depleted gas field for use as a site for permanent CO2storage.
• Support the UK’s energy transition strategy, which is targeting capturing 20-30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year across the UK by 2030.

KeyFacts Energy: Eni UK country profile