Carbon capture and storage

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is the name given to a combination of technologies that capture and store carbon dioxide deep underground, preventing its release into the atmosphere. Learn about the CCS projects Shell is working on in the UK.

Building our CCS capability

15 September 2023 update: Shell UK and Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited (Esso) have been awarded three carbon storage appraisal licences in the UK’s first-ever carbon storage licensing round.

The three licensed areas, which cover the Sean and Indefatigable gas fields and a saline aquifer off the coast from Humberside, were awarded by the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) in a licensing round that began in June 2022.

Shell UK and Esso will now evaluate these areas and potentially develop them into sites where carbon captured and transported from industrial facilities can be safely and permanently stored, subject to future regulatory approvals and financial investment decisions. Both Shell UK and Esso will hold a 50% interest.

“For more than 50 years, the Southern North Sea has been the heartland of a booming gas industry, powering homes and businesses across the UK. Now we enter a new phase, where these fields and aquifers can be repurposed to store CO2 to help combat climate change. Both Shell and the UK aim to be net zero by 2050, and the award of these licences is a step towards that.”

David Bunch, Shell UK Country Chair

“We welcome the award of these new CCS licences from the NSTA. The potential for increased storage capacity will help UK CCS projects provide a pathway for industries to decarbonize as rapidly as possible. Developing and delivering CCS projects will pave the way to re-purposing this knowledge for a new low-carbon industry.”

Bernhard Koudelka, Shell Vice President CCS

Shell is part of a number of CCS projects in the UK:

1. The Acorn Project:

In Scotland, Shell UK is a partner of the Acorn Project, in partnership with Storegga, Harbour Energy, and North Sea Midstream Partners. Acorn is working to provide the critical transport and storage infrastructure that will help Scottish industry decarbonise, including Shell’s St Fergus Gas Terminal. Acorn Project could contribute around a third of the UK’s carbon storage target of up to 30 million tonnes a year by 2030. In July 2023, Acorn was awarded Track-2 status in the UK Government’s cluster sequencing process, which aims to deploy CCS at 4 industrial clusters by 2030. Find out more via the Acorn Project website

2. South Wales Industrial Cluster:

In the South Wales, Shell is part of the South Wales Industrial Cluster (SWIC), a group looking to decarbonise the region using, amongst other technologies, CCS. South Wales is the second largest industrial emitter in the UK, releasing the equivalent of 16 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year across industry and energy generation and so the SWIC project could help to significantly reduce emissions and improve air quality in the area. Find out more via the SWIC website

Global CCS projects

Shell’s CCS projects around the world

As well as the role we’re playing in developing CCS projects in the UK, Shell is also at the forefront of developing CCS technology globally.

Top questions about CCS

1. What is CCS and how does it work?

Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, is a combination of technologies that capture and store carbon dioxide deep underground, preventing its release into the atmosphere.

It is generally used to help decarbonise industrial processes, such as the production of steel, cement, or chemicals, or to help decarbonise power stations that use hydrocarbons to generate electricity. These are all areas where there are not currently scalable low-carbon alternatives to the oil and gas they use.

In CCS facilities, CO₂ is first separated from any other gases produced. It is then compressed and transported via pipe or ship to locations where it can be stored. Finally, the CO₂ is injected into geological formations deep underground for permanent storage.

2. Will CCS really help us tackle climate change?

Most climate scientists are clear that using CCS technology to reduce emissions plays an important role in the transition of the energy system. Beyond this, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 1.5°C scenarios¹ show that there will be residual emissions because some sectors and end users will not be able to fully eliminate the use of hydrocarbons. Technologies like CCS have a crucial role to play in enabling these sectors to reach net-zero emissions by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

Indeed, a 2020 report by the International Energy Agency² said that in some sectors, CCS is one of the few technologies able to address CO₂ emissions and will be essential to achieving the goal of net-zero emissions.

3. Is CCS safe and how you ensure that the CO2 will remain in the ground?

Yes. CCS technology isn’t new. In fact, it draws on technologies that the oil and gas industry has been using for over fifty years now and there have been CCS projects in operation for around 20 years. Today, there are multiple operational CCS projects around the globe that demonstrate the efficacy of the technology, projects that together can capture and store around 40 million tonnes of CO₂ every year³.

4. Why doesn’t Shell just invest in more renewables?

Shell has a target to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050. Becoming a net-zero emissions energy business is a huge task. The business plans we have today will not get us there. So, our plans must change.

That is one of the many reasons why we are actively growing our portfolio of low-carbon energy solutions and continue to invest in a wide range of renewables energies such as wind and solar, new mobility options such as electric vehicle charging and hydrogen refuelling, and an interconnected power business that will provide electricity to millions of homes, companies and businesses. Find out more about our renewables and energy solutions business

But there is no one step to achieving net-zero emissions. Most climate scientists are clear that using CCS technology to reduce emissions plays an important role in the transition of the energy system. Beyond reducing emissions, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 1.5°C scenarios¹ show that even when the energy system reaches net-zero emissions, there will be residual emissions because some sectors and end users will not be able to eliminate the use of hydrocarbons. Consequently, CO₂ that is already in the atmosphere will need to be removed. Carbon capture and storage has a role to play in both reducing emissions and removing CO₂ from the atmosphere.

5. Is CCS a way for Shell to justify exploring for more oil and gas?

No. CCS is essential for the world reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement – and for Shell to reach its climate target.

CCS will be a critical tool in helping address hard-to-abate emissions from Shell’s own operations, such as refineries and chemical complexes, as well as our customers’ emissions.

To reach our net-zero emissions target, we also want to be a partner for change, working with our customers to help them address their greenhouse gas emissions. CCS can play an important role in that too, helping to decarbonise heavy industries like steel, cement, glass, and chemicals manufacturing. Enabling decarbonisation in these industries can also support their growth and the jobs they provide, even as the world moves towards net zero.

Action on CCS must be part of package of solutions that will together help the world to reach net-zero emissions. It will require extensive collaboration between governments, shareholders and investors, NGOs, heavy industry and companies skilled in CCS, to help unlock financing capacity, accelerate technological development, and encourage public support for an industry that can be ready to store CO₂ at scale, and help us reach the goals of the Paris Agreement.

6. The scale and cost of CCS needed is enormous. Is it realistic?

The scale of everything associated with the global energy transition is enormous. And the implications of not addressing climate change represent a cost that all nations have agreed is too enormous to bear.

CCS can significantly reduce CO₂ emissions from power plants and other major industrial processes such as refining, petrochemicals and steelmaking. But cost and technological hurdles have hindered the pace of deployment. However, this is changing as government led carbon pricing mechanisms impose a cost on emitting CO₂. The cost of CCS relative to the cost of emitting CO₂ is also decreasing as we move towards developing CCS within industrial hubs which provide economies of scale. Furthermore, as more projects are completed, we gain knowledge that helps reduce costs even more.

For example, the cost to operate the Quest CCS facility

in Alberta, Canada, is about 35% lower than what was forecast in 2015, and, if Quest were to be built today, it would cost about 30% less thanks to potential front-end engineering savings and capital efficiency improvements.

Accelerating the pace of CCS deployment requires continued collaboration between governments, industry and investors, among others, to help unlock financing capacity, accelerate technology development and generate markets for lower carbon products. We recognise the scale of the challenge in developing CCS globally as quickly and as widely as needed, but we also agree with the UK’s Climate Change Committee that CCS is a “necessity, not an option”⁴ and so this is a challenge that we are working hard to address.

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Shell’s net-zero emissions target

Shell’s operating plan and outlook are forecasted for a three-year period and ten-year period, respectively, and are updated every year. They reflect the current economic environment and what we can reasonably expect to see over the next three and ten years. Accordingly, the outlook reflects our Scope 1, Scope 2 and NCI targets over the next ten years. However, Shell’s operating plan and outlook cannot reflect our 2050 net-zero emissions target, as this target is outside our planning period. Such future operating plans and outlooks could include changes to our portfolio, efficiency improvements and the use of carbon capture and storage and carbon credits. In the future, as society moves towards net-zero emissions, we expect Shell’s operating plans and outlooks to reflect this movement. However, if society is not net zero in 2050, as of today, there would be significant risk that Shell may not meet this target.

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