Neptune to study potential for new CCS project in depleted Dutch offshore gas fields

London — Gas-focused producer Neptune Energy said Dec. 10 it planned to carry out a feasibility study into the potential for a new large-scale offshore carbon capture and storage project in the Dutch North Sea.

The plan is the latest to be announced in Europe as upstream producers look to use depleted offshore fields to store CO2. Italy's Eni, for example, has similar plans to store CO2 in depleted fields offshore the UK and Italy.

Neptune said the study would assess the feasibility of injecting 5 million-8 million mt a year of CO2 into the depleted gas fields around the Neptune-operated L10-A, L10-B and L10-E areas.

"If the project is developed, it will be one of the largest CCS facilities in the Dutch North Sea and could meet more than 50% of the CO2 reduction being targeted by the Dutch industrial sector," Neptune said in a statement.

The fields have the potential to store 120 million-150 million mt of CO2 in total, and Neptune said it would conduct the study in cooperation with its license partners and CO2 emitters.

"The first step is a feasibility study to confirm that CO2 can be handled and stored safely in these depleted gas reservoirs, using our existing infrastructure," Managing Director of Neptune in the Netherlands, Lex de Groot, said.

'New energy hub'

Neptune said the Dutch North Sea had the potential to become a "new energy hub" given its existing infrastructure that connects offshore with onshore.

It will also be home to the world's first offshore green hydrogen pilot, PosHYdon, which Neptune's Q13a platform will host.

"As the largest offshore gas producer in the Dutch sector of the North Sea, we are well-positioned to help the Netherlands achieve its climate goals by using existing infrastructure to enable offshore CCS and offshore green hydrogen production," de Groot said.

Energie Beheer Nederland CEO Jan Willem van Hoogstraten said the new study would follow on from other projects for offshore CCS, such as the Porthos and Athos projects.

"This study by Neptune is another important step to convert the empty offshore gas fields into large-scale CO2 storage," he said.

Neptune said it already has significant experience with CCS, having carried out a 14-year project on its K12-B platform offshore the Netherlands, reinjecting CO2 into the gas field.