Italian firm Saipem has received a serious contract from Eni to assist construct a brand new carbon seize and storage (CCS) undertaking off the coast of northern England. The contract is value about €520 million ($590 million) and is a part of the HyNet industrial cluster. It’s a main effort to chop emissions in one of many UK’s most carbon-heavy areas and assist the nation’s net-zero purpose.
The Liverpool Bay CCS project will seize carbon dioxide (CO2) from industries throughout North West England and North Wales. The captured CO2 will then be transported by means of a community of pipelines and saved deep underground in outdated fuel fields below the Irish Sea. These fields, equivalent to Hamilton, Hamilton North, and Lennox, are owned by Eni.
The undertaking is feasible to finish in about three years and can play an essential position in serving to the UK meet its net-zero emissions targets. It may additionally create over 1,000 native jobs through the development interval, giving the financial system a lift.
What Saipem Will Construct: Connecting the Carbon Dots
As a part of the undertaking, Saipem will probably be liable for the engineering, procurement, development, and commissioning assist of a brand new CO2 compression station at Level of Ayr in North Wales.
This new facility will substitute an outdated fuel processing plant. As an alternative of dealing with pure fuel, the brand new station will compress CO2 and ship it to storage websites offshore. It can join with each the undertaking’s onshore and offshore elements, guaranteeing that the captured carbon could be transported safely and completely saved underground.
Along with the brand new compression station, different work consists of:
- Retrofitting current offshore platforms to deal with CO2 as an alternative of pure fuel
- Repurposing 149 kilometers (about 93 miles) of current pipelines
- Constructing 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) of latest pipelines to hyperlink factories and different carbon sources to the community
These efforts will be sure that CO2 captured from factories, energy vegetation, and different industrial websites could be securely saved and stored out of the ambiance.
Zeroing In on the UK’s Web Zero Objectives
The UK authorities has made carbon capture and storage a key a part of its plan to combat local weather change. It can spend £22 billion over 25 years on carbon seize and storage (CCS) to assist attain its net-zero purpose by 2050.
CCS captures carbon from heavy industries and shops it underground. However rising prices imply solely 3 of the 8 deliberate tasks will go forward. These embrace the East Coast Cluster, led by BP and Equinorand HyNet in western England and Wales.
- Collectively, they goal to take away about 3 million tons of CO₂ per 12 months—a lot lower than the 20 to 30 million tons first deliberate.
Critics say this might hold the UK tied to pure fuel for years and decelerate the shift to scrub vitality like wind and photo voltaic. The Nationwide Audit Workplace warns about delays, rising prices, and previous CCS failures. CCS may assist cut back industrial emissions. Nonetheless, specialists say extra funding in renewables and energy efficiency is required for a very inexperienced future.
The federal government accredited the HyNet undertaking in October 2024.
Firms, like Heidelberg Supplies, which makes cement, are able to ship their CO2 for storage. Different companions embrace Viridor, Ineos, Fulcrum Bioenergy, and Progressive Vitality.
The Liverpool Bay CCS undertaking goals to chop emissions from tough-to-clean industries, equivalent to cement manufacturing and waste-to-energy vegetation. The undertaking captures and shops CO2. This helps cease hundreds of thousands of tons of greenhouse gases from getting into the ambiance every year.
Liverpool Bay will retailer as much as 4.5 million tonnes of CO2 every year in its first section and improve that to 10 million tonnes yearly after 2030. This effort instantly helps the UK’s purpose to retailer 20 to 30 million tonnes of CO₂ per 12 months by 2030.
Eni lately obtained funding from the UK’s Division for Vitality Safety and Web Zero (DESNZ). This assist lets them proceed with development.
As well as, Eni has obtained three carbon storage licenses from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). These licenses cowl the event of a storage system able to holding 109 million tons of CO2 over the following 25 years.
This undertaking is a serious piece of the UK’s broader effort to succeed in net-zero emissions by 2050.
Saipem’s Rising CCS Enterprise
For Saipem, the Liverpool Bay contract is one other huge win within the rising subject of carbon seize and storage. The corporate reported a complete backlog of €32.7 billion ($37.2 billion) on the finish of March 2025, with CCS projects taking part in an growing position.
Saipem mentioned that the Liverpool Bay undertaking reveals how vitality firms can reuse current oil and fuel infrastructure to assist the vitality transition. By changing outdated pipelines and platforms to deal with CO2, the business can minimize prices and pace up the transfer towards cleaner vitality.
Along with the Liverpool Bay undertaking, Eni is engaged on one other CCS initiative within the Bacton Thames space within the southern North Sea. This undertaking, known as the Bacton Thames Web-Zero Initiative, goals to seize CO2 from industries round Bacton and the Thames Estuary. It may even settle for CO2 from factories within the European Union, increasing its impression past the UK.
Turning the Tide in Liverpool Bay
The Liverpool Bay CCS undertaking reveals how outdated fossil gas infrastructure could be given a brand new life within the clear vitality period. Pipelines and platforms will now assist combat local weather change. They are going to safely retailer carbon underground as an alternative of manufacturing and transporting pure fuel.
Building on the brand new compression station at Level of Ayr and upgrades to the broader pipeline community will ramp up quickly. If issues go as deliberate, the Liverpool Bay CCS system might begin capturing and storing CO2 by the top of the last decade. This might considerably increase the UK’s local weather efforts.
The area is main by turning carbon-heavy industries into cleaner ones. This reveals how industrial hubs worldwide might help meet international local weather targets.
