Saipem is readying itself to construct a CO2 transport pipeline in the UK after £4 billion in contracts were dished out.
The Italian firm has been contracted to engineer, procure, construct and install a 28” and approximately 145 km (90 miles) offshore pipeline with associated landfalls and onshore outlet facilities for the Northern Endurance Partership’s (NEP) CCS project.
In addition to this, Saipem is also contracted to carry out engineering, procurement, construction and installation work on the water outfall for the Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) project.
The pipeline offshore operations will be performed by Saipem’s Castorone vessel, and the nearshore operations will be performed by Saipem’s shallow water pipelay Castoro 10.
Following this contract award, Saipem has signed a Letter of Intent with both groups.
Alessandro Puliti, chief executive officer of Saipem, said: “We are extremely proud to be the selected contractor for the offshore CO2 pipelines and associated facilities of NEP and NZT contracts.
“Saipem is fully committed to provide the best competences and its flagship vessel Castorone to support NEP and NZT Power partnerships and contribute to the realization of the first zero-carbon industrial hub in the North-East of England and the achievement of the UK’s Net Zero targets”.
Contracts worth £4 billion handed out
NZT Power and NEP form part of the East Coast Cluster, a major carbon capture and net zero power initiative across the Teesside area, with the Net Zero Teesside gas-fired power plant storing its emissions via the NEP carbon capture and storage (CCS) site.
Last week saw the pair hand out £4 billion worth of contracts to industry heavy hitters such as Wood, TechnipFMC, and Shell.
The final award of the contracts will be subject to Final Investment Decisions (FID) being made by the projects and UK government, which are planned for September 2024, and receipt of relevant regulatory clearances.
NZT Power is a joint venture between BP and Equinor and will be capable of dispatching up to 860 megawatts of flexible low-carbon power.
The group says that its project can create more than 3,000 construction jobs and then will require around 1,000 jobs annually during operations until 2050.
The plant will be capable of capturing up to 2 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year where it will then be transported and stored by the NEP in subsea storage sites beneath the North Sea.
NEP, a joint venture between BP, Equinor, and TotalEnergies, is the CO2 transportation and storage provider for the East Coast Cluster (ECC).
The Teesside onshore NEP infrastructure would serve the Teesside-based carbon capture projects such as NZT Power, H2Teesside and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture.
These capture projects were selected for first connection to the ECC by DESNZ in March 2023 as part of the UK’s cluster sequencing process for carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS).
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