Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) and the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) have dished out contracts with a combined value of around £4 billion.
The pair 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.
The engineering, procurement, and construction work has been handed out to nine firms across eight contract packages with big name energy service providers named among the winners.
The likes of Wood, TechnipFMC, and Saipem have all been listed among contract awardees.
This is being described by NZT Power as a major milestone for the Teesside-based projects, which will contribute to the UK’s journey towards net zero emissions by 2050.
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.
Following FID, the projects are aiming for first commercial operations from 2027.
The contractors announced today are:
- Onshore Power, Capture and Compression – Technip Energies and GE Vernova consortium including Balfour Beatty as the construction partner and Shell as the technology licensor
- Onshore CO2 gathering system and gas connection – Costain
- Linepipe – Onshore and Offshore – Marubeni-Itochu Tubulars Europe Plc with Liberty Steel Hartlepool, Corinth Pipeworks and Eisenbau Kramer GmbH as the nominated pipe-mills
- Offshore Pipeline, Landfalls, Onshore Outlet Facilities and Water Outfall – Saipem
- Offshore Subsea Injection System – TechnipFMC
- Power and Communications Cable – Alcatel Submarine Networks
- Offshore Systems Engineering – Genesis
- Integrated Project Management Team – Wood
Ben Houchen, Tees Valley Mayor, said: “This would be the single biggest investment in Teesside since ICI. It cannot be understated the transformational economic impact this will have right across Teesside, Darlington and Hartlepool.
“Our area is now the world-leading centre in developing the clean, green industries of the future, which most importantly will deliver the highly-skilled well-paid jobs of the future.
“This investment of £4bn will support businesses up and down the local supply chain with companies like Hartlepool-based Liberty Steel already netting a multi-million pound contract.
“I will continue to work to ensure local British firms benefit from this colossal investment as this world first project moves forward to final investment decision in September this year”.
What is NZT Power and NEP?
© Supplied by MadanoNZT 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.
“We have selected world-class partners who have the experience and capability needed to deliver,” Ian Hunter, managing director of NZT Power, said.
“We aim to take final investment decision in September 2024 or before, after which we’d look forward to working with our EPC partners through the construction phase”.
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).
Chris Daykin, general manager at NEP, added: “The selection of contractors is a clear signal of momentum within the East Coast Cluster.
“The Northern Endurance Partnership’s CO2 pipelines are essential to connect carbon intensive projects to offshore storage and would play an important role in helping the region pursue its net zero plan”.
