The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and The Crown Estate have signed a lease paving the way for the UK’s first and largest commercial-scale CO2 transportation and storage asset.
The landmark agreement establishes the UK’s first commercial-scale lease of the seabed for permanent offshore CO2 storage and associated pipeline infrastructure, providing a template for future carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects around the UK’s coastline.
Following an Agreement for Lease in September 2023, the lease signing is a critical milestone towards installing the infrastructure for the Endurance carbon store – a saline aquifer located approximately 140 km offshore in the southern North Sea which, together with nearby stores, provides NEP with access to up to 1 billion tonnes of CO2 storage capacity.
The lease, the first of its kind in the UK, covers NEP’s offshore pipeline corridor and storage site. It will run until injection at the store is complete, currently expected in the mid-2050s.
Rich Denny, Managing Director, Northern Endurance Partnership, said: 'We’re well on our way to starting construction of the UK’s first offshore carbon transport and storage infrastructure – helping drive the journey to net zero and boost economic growth. Thank you to The Crown Estate for their support in delivering this critical piece of national infrastructure.'
Denise Moylan, CCS & Hydrogen Director at The Crown Estate, said: 'This is the first carbon capture and storage project to progress to this stage and signifies the clear potential of this exciting sector. By storing carbon emissions which would otherwise have entered our atmosphere, we are supporting hard to abate industries to decarbonise whilst also driving economic growth in the north east of England.
'We’ve worked closely with the team at Northern Endurance Partnership and are very pleased the project has entered into lease, and look forward to their continued success as the project moves into its construction phase.'
In December 2024, NEP reached financial close on the first phase of Teesside’s onshore infrastructure – serving NZT Power and future Teesside-based projects – and on the 145-kilometre offshore pipeline to the Endurance Carbon Store. NEP was simultaneously awarded the UK’s first-ever carbon storage permit by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). With all necessary consents secured, construction is underway, and start-up is expected in 2028.
Source: Northern Endurance Partnership
