Eni UK has launched the Bacton Thames Net Zero (BTNZ) Cooperation Agreement with the shared aim of decarbonizing industrial processes in the southeast of England and the Thames Estuary area near London by means of capturing and storing CO₂. - Offshore

The initiative will decarbonize a number of sectors including power generation and waste disposal. The project will capture, transport and store 6 MMtonnes per year growing up to 10 MMtonnes per year of CO₂ emitted from the Bacton, wider Thames Estuary and potentially northwest European regions into the Hewett depleted gas field, located 20 miles off the North Norfolk Coast in the North Sea. This site has the capacity to store 330 MMtonnes of CO₂. 

For Hewett, Eni UK applied to the North Sea Transition Authority for a CO₂ license storage in September. The license award announcement is expected within first-quarter 2023. The project is expected to be operational as early as 2027 and aims to support the UK government’s net-zero strategy, which targets capturing 20 MMtonnes to 30 MMtonnes of CO₂ per year across the UK by 2030.

The BTNZ initiative has been convened by Eni UK and is supported by Cadent, Cory, Enfinium, MVV Environment, Progressive Energy, Summit Energy Evolution, North London Waste Authority, SSE Thermal, Interconnector and Fluxys. The participation of Interconnector and Fluxys reflects the potential opportunity for international transport of CO₂. 

Eni UK is already actively planning the transportation and storage of CO₂ from its partners to the depleted Hewett gas field. Eni boasts it has extensive subsurface knowledge of the field, having operated in the region for many years, and has a successful track record in CCS thanks to its work in guiding the HyNet project in the Liverpool Bay area for which a CCS license was awarded to Eni in 2020.