BP has taken a 40 per cent stake in the Viking carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, with Harbour Energy continuing to operate the project with a 60 per cent interest.

Located close to the heavily industrialised Humber region, Viking CCS has the potential to meet one third of the Government’s target to capture and store up to 30 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030 by taking the carbon dioxide emitted from factories and putting it in empty gas fields under the southern North Sea.

The announcement follows the recent UK Government decision to launch Track 2 of its CCS cluster sequencing process, and its recognition that Viking CCS is one of two leading transport and storage system contenders for this process.

The Viking project could be transformational for the region, potentially unlocking up to £7bn of investment across the full CO2 capture, transport and storage value chain over the next decade.

Harbour and bp already share an interest in the Lincolnshire Offshore Gas Gathering System (LOGGS) pipeline which is intended to be repurposed as part of the project. This provides a unique, low-cost opportunity to connect customers to the depleted Viking gas fields, which recently had their 300 million tonnes of CO2 storage capacity independently verified.

BP plans to invest up to £18bn in its UK operations this decade, including through oil and gas production, wind farms and carbon capture.

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