Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps she is taking to encourage the use of sites under the North Sea for carbon sequestration.

Carbon capture, usage and storage (CCUS) will play a vital role in meeting our net zero greenhouse gas emissions target by 2050, supporting both our Industrial Strategy and the revitalisation of the economies of the UK’s industrial areas. The Government is committed to deploying CCUS in the 2020s.

The Oil and Gas Authority issued its first CO₂ storage licence to Pale Blue Dot Energy (Acorn) Ltd (PBD) for the Acorn Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project in 2018.

In order to support the development of potential CO₂ storage sites, the Government invested £2.5 million in the Energy Technologies Institute’s (ETI) CO₂ Storage Appraisal Project which looked in detail at eight potential CO₂ storage sites[1]. The UK also has the world-leading CO2-stored database[2] which is hosted and developed by the British Geological Survey and provides the data for over 500 potential offshore CO₂ storage sites around the UK.

We are working closely with North Sea countries through the North Sea Basin Taskforce to share best practice and cooperate on North Sea CO₂ storage. In October 2019, we cooperated with Norway and the Netherlands to achieve a provisional amendment to the London Protocol, allowing for the cross-border transport of CO₂ for permanent storage, such as in the North Sea – a key breakthrough for UK projects and facilitating international CCUS deployment

[1] Energy Technologies Institute LLP, Strategic UK CCS Storage Appraisal, 2016

[2] CO2 Stored Database available at: http://www.co2stored.co.uk/home/index