Italy-headquartered energy company Eni has reached financial close with the UK government for its Liverpool Bay carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, enabling the development to begin construction shortly.
The project forms the backbone of the HyNet industrial cluster in North West England and North Wales, where Eni is responsible for operating the carbon dioxide transport and storage system. It will involve repurposing offshore platforms and more than 180km of pipeline infrastructure to transport captured CO2 from industrial sites to permanent geological storage in depleted gas fields under Liverpool Bay in the Irish Sea.
According to Eni, construction will begin later this year, with operations expected to start in 2028.The project will initially be able to store up to 4.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, with plans to scale up to 10 million tonnes annually by the 2030s.
The financial close was confirmed during day two of the two-day “Summit on the future of energy security,” co-hosted by the UK government and the International Energy Agency in London this week.
“This investment from our partnership with Eni is the government working together with industry to kickstart growth and back engineers, welders and electricians through our mission to become a clean energy superpower,” said Ed Miliband, UK Secretary of State for Energy Security.
The HyNet Project Map ©HyNet
The development is part of the UK’s broader CCS strategy, backed by £21.7bn ($28.9bn) in long-term (a 25-year period) funding across the country’s first two CCS clusters. It forms part of the UK’s Net Zero industrial policy, aiming to support emissions reduction in sectors where direct electrification or fuel switching remains challenging.
HyNet will serve a range of emitters, including cement production, waste-to-energy plants, and low-carbon hydrogen projects. New infrastructure will include 35km of pipeline to connect these industrial sources to the Liverpool Bay transportation and storage system.
The Liverpool Bay development forms part of Eni’s wider CCS portfolio, which includes projects with a combined gross storage capacity of around three billion tonnes worldwide.
One of the four initial projects that will supply CO2 for storage is HPP1 – an initiative started by technology developer Essar Energy Transition (EET) Hydrogen.
The project is expected to be the UK’s first large low-carbon hydrogen plant, with a capacity of 350 MW and capturing 600,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Reacting to Eni’s announcement, Tony Fountain, Managing Partner of EET Fuels, said, “The HyNet CO2 pipeline is a game-changer for industry in the North West and confirms the unique positioning of our Stanlow Manufacturing Complex as an energy transition hub.”
