Sullom Voe Terminal takes first steps in ‘carbon megastore’ vision
Sullom Voe Terminal is set to undergo a major role reversal as it becomes a hub for liquid carbon dioxide.
After decades of receiving oil and gas from offshore, the facility is set to pipe millions of tonnes of CO2 back out to disused fields 100 miles north-east of Shetland.
Terminal operator EnQuest has secured licences to store CO2 in the Magnus, Thistle, Tern and Eider fields.
It forms part of the company’s plans to develop a low-cost “carbon megastore” initially capable of storing 10 million tonnes of CO2.
EnQuest chief financial officer, Salman Malik, said: “Our vision is that geological formations in this area will ultimately be capable of permanently storing more than one billion tonnes of CO2.”
The licences were granted as part of the first of UK carbon sequestration licences issued by the North Sea Transition Authority.
In total 20 sites were awarded licences which in together could store 10 per cent of total UK emissions.
Mr ian Tinkler
Wow, a gas, Carbon dioxide, lethal to all breathing creatures at 20% concentration, is to be stored “for all time” in a compressed volatile state off the coast of Shetland. Ten million tonnes of CO2, heavier than air gas, would form a gas cloud of immense size enveloping all. It would undoubtedly kill all of Shetland if it drifted our way. What could go wrong?? Never mind, the pseudo-Greens would make a financial killing in every sense of the word, no doubt with government grants to help..
Adrian Brough
Not volatile once pumped underground. Will dissolve in ground water and eventually chemically combine with rocks.