Eni reaches 19 MoUs for HyNet participation

ENI UK has achieved 19 memorandums of understanding (MoUs), with as many companies interested in having their emissions captured, transported, and stored in the energy company’s depleted reservoirs as part of the HyNet North West project.

HyNet is a UK industrial cluster project, which will see a hydrogen production facility built to supply industry, transport, homes and businesses in the North West and North Wales region. CCS infrastructure will also be developed to serve the hydrogen facility, and industry. Once operational, it is expected to transform one of the UK’s most energy-intensive industrial districts into the world’s first low-carbon industrial cluster.

Six of the deals signed to date came in January alone, which Eni says demonstrates the outstanding interest that UK industry has in the decarbonisation potential that HyNet offers. The agreements include hard-to-abate sectors, and are expected to play a crucial role in enabling the decarbonisation initiatives in the North West of England and the North Wales industrial cluster.

HyNet is expected to support UK decarbonisation by contributing 100% of the 10m t/y CO2 storage capacity and 80% of the 5 GW low carbon hydrogen production capacity, which the Government aims to achieve by 2030 as part of the UK’s ten-point plan. Last year, HyNet was chosen as one of two priority projects (out of five competing) that the Government would back for operationality by the mid-2020s.

Eni is a HyNet project partner. It currently operates Liverpool Bay facilities in the East Irish Sea and the depleted Hewett gas field, which is 19 miles (30.6 km) off the Norfolk coast, and is currently in the decommissioning phase.