Eni wins approval for UK carbon capture pipeline

Eni has won government approval for a pipeline to transport CO2 to the UK’s HyNet North West carbon capture and hydrogen project, the company announced on Thursday.

The HyNet CO2 pipeline will transport carbon dioxide from capture plants across the North West of England and North Wales through new and repurposed infrastructure to permanent storage in Eni’s depleted natural gas reservoirs, located under the seabed in Liverpool Bay.

The HyNet North West project will also develop a low-emissions hydrogen supply chain for industry, transport and home heating.

The industrial decarbonisation hub is being developed by a consortium of Progressive Energy, Eni UK, Essar Oil UK, Cadent, chemical company Inovyn, CF Fertilisers, Hanson UK and the University of Chester.

“We welcome the UK government’s ambition to promote and develop the kind of groundbreaking projects we need to address climate change, especially within hard-to-abate sectors,” Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said.

“Carbon capture will play a critical role in meeting this challenge by safely eliminating emissions from industries that currently do not have equally efficient and effective solutions.”

Descalzi noted that Eni’s January completion of its acquisition of the UK’s Neptune Energy has given it access to three additional CO2 storage licences for a total gross storage capacity of about 1 gigatonnes in the country.