- The €1.3 billion Porthos project in Rotterdam has started drilling a 30 mile pipeline to capture and store 1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year from industrial facilities in depleted North Sea gas fields.
- As Europe’s most ambitious carbon capture and storage project so far, Porthos aims to prove the viability of the technology in reducing emissions from hard-to-decarbonize sectors despite facing economic and environmental opposition.
- If successful, Porthos could pave the way for more large-scale CCS projects in the North Sea region as part of efforts to meet climate goals.
“If the project succeeds, a second pipeline — called Aramis and already backed by Shell and Total — is planned in Rotterdam to a gasfield that could store more than 10 times as much CO₂. In the UK, 14 companies won 21 licences last September to use depleted North Sea fields with the potential to store up to 10 per cent of the UK’s annual CO₂ emissions.”