The all-party parliamentary group (APPG) has called for evidence on the “enormous potential” of carbon capture and storage (CCS).
CCS is a process which captures large quantities of carbon emissions and stores them underground, stopping them from being released into the atmosphere.
St Fergus gas terminal near Peterhead was highlighted by a Westminster task force as a key site to deploy CCS at scale, three years after a £1bn fund for a similar project in the region was scrapped.
It is estimated region could store 75% of the UK’s CO2 emissions when coupled with carbon capture infrastructure.
Oil and gas pipelines could then be used to store CO2 in rock formations under the North Sea.
It is estimated region could store 75% of the UK’s CO2 emissions when coupled with carbon capture infrastructure.
Scottish Conservative and member of the APPG David Duguid claims that a Scottish cluster, including the St Fergus terminal, should be one of the UK’s first sites to be fully operational.
He said:“In the next three weeks the APPG will hear from the industry and its partners.
“We will make recommendations to the UK Government on where it can most effectively fund CCS in its next spending review for 2020-23.
“I believe the so-called ‘Scottish cluster’ of sites, connecting the St Fergus terminal in my constituency with the industrial complex at Grangemouth, should be a front-runner for development.”
The Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Select Committee recently called on the Government to raise its ambition, calling for three CCS clusters to be developed by the mid-2020s.
Earlier this month, Banffshire and Buchan MSP Stewart Stevenson said the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC) recent findings should encourage the government to resume its plans for CCS at the St Fergus site, near Peterhead.
He said: “Scotland already leads the world on engineering expertise in the energy sector.
“We have huge potential to use those skills and infrastructure to lead the world in carbon capture and storage which could create thousands of jobs, while developing new technology to help meet our climate change obligations as this groundbreaking report from the CCC demonstrates.”
