Neptune Energy launches study into Dutch carbon capture scheme
Private equity backed oil and gas operator says scheme — if developed — could capture 50% of Dutch industrial CO2 emissions
Plans: a graphic showing where the CCS scheme being studied by Neptune would be locatedPhoto: NEPTUNE ENERGY
Rob Watts
London
Private equity backed operator Neptune Energy is embarking on a feasibility study into a large-scale offshore carbon capture and storage project in the Dutch sector of the North Sea.
The study will assess the feasibility of injecting between 5 million and 8 million tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide captured from Dutch industry into depleted gas fields around the Neptune-operated L10-A, L10-B and L10-E areas.
If developed, Neptune said the scheme could potentially store 120 million to 150 million tonnes of CO2, which it claimed would make it one of the largest CCS facilities in the Dutch North Sea, meeting more than 50% of the CO2 reduction being targeted by the industrial sector in the Netherlands.
The study will be carried out by Neptune in co-operation with its L10 licence partners — Dutch state entity Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN), Rosewood Exploration and XTO Netherlands — and CO2 emitters.
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'Well positioned'
Lex de Groot, managing director of Neptune Energy in the Netherlands, said: “The first step is a feasibility study to confirm that CO2 can be handled and stored safely in these depleted gas reservoirs, using our existing infrastructure. We will engage with organisations and emitters to offer safe and competitively priced CO2 storage.
“As the largest offshore gas producer in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, we are well-positioned to help the Netherlands achieve its climate goals by using existing infrastructure to enable offshore CCS and offshore green hydrogen production.”
EBN chief executive Jan Willem van Hoogstraten said CCS is crucial for the Netherlands to achieve its Paris climate goals.
“We are already making great strides with the Porthos and Athos projects that want to store CO2 in empty gas fields off the coast of Rotterdam and Ijmuiden respectively. This study by Neptune is another important step to convert the empty offshore gas fields into large-scale CO2 storage,” he said.
“Obviously, we are pleased to participate in projects of our joint venture partners that use existing infrastructure for the safe offshore storage of CO2.”
Neptune already has experience with CCS, having carried out a 14-year project on its K12-B platform offshore the Netherlands, re-injecting CO2 into the gas field.
