ENGINEERING service company Wood Group Kenny (WGK) has been picked to help the National Grid design a demonstration carbon dioxide storage project under the southern North Sea.
From its Aberdeen base, WGK is to work with its sister firm Wood Group Mustang (WGM) on design work for offshore pipeline and subsea facilities for the project.
It would see a pipeline built by National Grid to transport up to 200million tonnes of carbon from power stations and other industrial sites in the Humberside area of England area to a saline aquifer – porous rock containing salt water – offshore.
Initially, the demonstration project, which has £166million of European Union funding, will transport emissions from a coal power station near Doncaster, called the Don Valley Power Project.
Patrick O’Brien, director of strategic business and marketing for WGK, said: “This is an important further step for us in expanding our business beyond oil and gas. We will lead this work from our Aberdeen office.”
Russell Cooper, of National Grid, said: “This project is one of a number we are considering in our quest to assist the UK Government to meet its obligation to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020.”
WGK’s work will cover concept design, scheduling and cost estimating for the offshore pipeline and subsea facilities, including a trunkline from a landfall site to the offshore injection facilities, as well as subsea structures, cables and umbilicals.
It will also perform flow assurance modelling from the landfall to the aquifer sand face, seen as essential to demonstrating the offshore transport and storage concept.
WGM will perform concept design of the offshore surface facilities including the jacket and topsides infrastructure.