New carbon capture shipping corridor between UK and EU announced

Marking the international North Sea Summit being held in Hamburg, a number of key UK and European port and infrastructure players have announced agreements to advance carbon shipping in the North Sea.

A bold vision for the energy transition
The Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) – one between ABP and LBC and North Sea Port and one between ABP and the Port of Esbjerg – set the stage for collaborative efforts to develop shipping routes for captured carbon dioxide (CO2), enabling hard-to-abate sectors to cut emissions while supporting and growing good jobs.

 This new shipping market adds to the positioning of ports as key players in the green economy.

Henrik Pedersen, Chief Executive Officer of ABP, said: “Ports have always been gateways for energy. Today, they are at the forefront of the energy transition.

“This agreement is about building the infrastructure and partnerships needed to decarbonise industry and create new opportunities for sustainable growth.

“It paves the way for the UK to utilise its world-leading geological assets to provide near-term options for emissions reductions across Europe and realise significant export potential for the UK.

Turning captured carbon into a new growth market for ports
The two MoUs will focus on:

·  Designing port infrastructure for CO2 handling, storage and shipping.
·  Building a robust value chain for CO2 transport between ABP’s Humber ports and leading European ports and infrastructure asset owners.
·  Driving innovation and efficiencies in carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) related transportation.

“Signing this MoU is about moving from vision to tangible progress,” Radboud Gordon, Group Business Development Director New Energies, LBC Tank Terminals, said.

“By combining LBC’s operational expertise in safe and sustainable storage with the port capabilities of ABP and North Sea Port, we can design an efficient, scalable shipping corridor that connects European emitters to UK storage at pace, supporting a competitive, cross-border CO2 market.”

A North Sea collaboration with global impact
The North Sea’s geological capacity for permanent carbon storage makes it a natural hub for this emerging market.
By connecting emitters of CO2 with storage operators, via shipping routes, ABP and their partners aim to deliver scalable solutions that accelerate the energy transition.

Providing storage services to EU countries increases the utilisation of UK CO2 storage infrastructure, supporting jobs, ongoing private sector investment as well as generating UK tax receipts.

This MOU follows a Carbon Capture and Storage Association (CCSA) report concluding that a pan-European CO2 market – inclusive of the UK  is a key driver for cost-efficiency, potentially lowering storage costs by 20 percent through economies of scale and proximate storage locations.

Building on the strength of the Viking CCS cluster
The Viking CCS project, a UK-based CO2 transportation and storage network, represents the most mature project in ABP's current portfolio of CCS solutions.

The project involves receiving captured CO2 via ABP’s Immingham Green Energy Terminal (IGET) for secure and permanent storage in depleted gas reservoirs in the Southern North Sea. IGET recently achieved full planning permission, via a Development Consent Order.

This initiative is central to establishing a world-leading CCS industry in the Humber region, the UK's most industrialised area and largest emitter of CO2.

By repurposing existing pipeline infrastructure and developing new import terminals like IGET the project provides a competitive, low-cost solution for industrial decarbonisation, both within the UK and internationally, via shipped CO2.