Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, whether he has had recent discussions with his Norwegian counterpart on (a) the Northern Lights project and (b) the viability of emulating their non-pipeline transport of carbon dioxide in the UK.

On 7^th May 2025, the Secretary of State met with Minister Aasland, his Norwegian counterpart, on the occasion of signing a Green Industrial Partnership with the Norwegian Government. This recognised the importance of continued collaboration on Carbon Capture Usage and Storage (CCUS), including a commitment to initiate work to identify gaps and challenges to the development of our common North Sea as a hub for carbon storage. Sharing knowledge from current projects, including the Northern Lights CCS project, will play an important role.

Our recently published Industrial Strategy: Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan emphasised how the UK’s favourable geology offers capacity to safely store up to 78 billion tonnes of CO₂ and the potential to offer international CO₂ storage services. Non-pipeline transport, especially the transport of CO₂ via ship, will help maximise this geological potential.