UK has capacity to store same carbon it produced since Industrial Revolution

The oil and gas regulator has revealed today it will soon announce the results of the UK’s first-ever carbon storage licensing round

The UK could benefit from a massive carbon storage capacity potential.

Joining a panel of speakers at the International Energy Week held today in London, Stuart Payne, Chief Executive of the North Sea Transition Authority said: “We have six billion pounds barrels worth of oil and gas left to produce in the North Sea.

“A huge network of pipelines and infrastructure that can support it. And in the UK, Continental Shelf alone, the ability to store up to 78 gigatonnes of carbon storage. 78 gigatonnes, being broadly, the amount of carbon storage that the UK has produced since the Industrial Revolution.

“There’s potentially up to 220 billion pounds worth of capital investment just between now and 2030, split between oil and gas, pump storage, hydrogen and of course wind. But this is all potential we need to get on with delivery, demonstrate progress and get real projects scaled up and moving.”

Mr Payne added: “We will shortly be announcing the results of the UK’s first-ever large-scale carbon storage licensing round, a key step in unblocking and unlocking the UK’s storage potential. Something that we are really proud to have initiated. But it’s important of course to remember finance.

“These are big changes and big challenges and they’re going to require big investment. We all know that there are walls of capital waiting to invest in the right energy transition.

“And clearly, there’s going to be some kind of race around the world to compete for that capital and competition’s good, but so is collaboration and working together.”

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