A new partnership to explore the establishment of an open-access CO2 transport and storage terminal in North West England has been announced.

Stanlow Terminals and Eni UK have signed a memorandum of understanding for the project, which would be capable of receiving, gathering and storing CO2 from industrial emitters and other sources via shipping from dispersed locations.

The project could see the development of CO2 collection, shipping and storage at the Stanlow Terminal location and delivered to Eni UK’s carbon transport and storage infrastructure currently being developed in the North West.

The infrastructure would provide many more industrial companies the opportunity to transport captured CO2 for storage in depleted gas fields.

Stanlow Terminals is part of Essar Energy Transition (EET), which was launched in February 2023 and plans to invest $3.6 billion (£2.8bn) in developing a range of low carbon energy transition projects over the next five years, out of which $2.4 billion (£1.9bn) is to be invested at its sites in North West England.

The latest agreement follows Stanlow Terminal’s plans to also develop open-access green ammonia facilities on the River Mersey.