A £300 million carbon capture project has been launched by Prax Lindsey Oil Refinery.
The huge investment, to take one million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the plant a year from 2028, was unveiled to a strong delegation from regional industry. It will involve a major infrastructure addition to the 55-year-old site, creating 2,000 temporary jobs, with significant supply chain opportunities.
Linking with the pipelines from similar plans being progressed from neighbouring Phillips 66 and VPI Immingham, and feeding into the wider South Bank model for transportation to sub-North Sea storage, it has been worked up by the team since the ink dried on the deal that saw the refinery bought from Total in March 2021.
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Luc Smets, general manager, presented the plan ahead of a CBI-led regional round table event to discuss the challenges and opportunities of the £15 billion Humber 2030 Vision - the grand portfolio of decarbonisation projects set to transform the region from worst polluter to global leader.
He said: “We are planning to capture more than 85 per cent of the CO2 production, that’s good for one million tonnes a year, an accumulative figure of 29 million tonnes by 2050.
“We have some challenging targets as a region and as a country to meet for 2030 and for 2050, and we are convinced we need to join and work together with all stakeholders to make it happen.
“Total, with all respect, did not have a plan when we acquired the refinery, they made a choice to leave the UK for strategic reasons. We understood there was urgent work to be done. We started right away, and we’re happy to say we’re close to the pack, if not in the middle of the pack now.”
It joined the Viking CCS project, then V Net Zero last September. The proposal will sit inside the refinery's existing footprint, with land idetified and worked up. And the huge demand for labour across key trades, with scaffolding, fabrication, welding, crane driving and more flagged, was underlined as the immense project pipeline materialises around the Energy Estuary.
“It will only happen if we can find the right people to help us,” Mr Smets said, with a warning over a looming skills shortage. “We will need more than 2,000 additional temporary workers that we need to attract here to the region, that’s us alone, and I’m understanding we will be working alongside many other projects. There is a feasibility concern for everybody working in similar projects.
“This can only work if we all work together with other stakeholders, as partners, across finance, government - we need support and the regulatory framework - to make it happen. The vision should be clear and not change, so we have clarity. For Prax it is quite substantial, it is a small company for this magnitude of project.”
Shortlisted in the government’s cluster sequencing round back in August, Mr Smets told how the pre-front end engineering design work was coming to an end, and anticipated to enter FEED in the second quarter of the year. He eyed late next year for engineering, procurement and construction work to commence, with an October 2027 completion aim, should the necessary support emerge.
Vladimir Langhamer, Prax Group’s managing director for Europe and Africa, said: “The UK has a unique opportunity for CO2 capture and storage that doesn’t really exist in many other places in the world. It is not just about the emissions, it is also about the ability to market a product as low carbon. We are doing this because we want to be part of the transition the government has set out, but also because it makes sense completely.”
Lindsey Oil Refinery is one of six UK refineries, the only one now wholly British owned, with a 150,000 barrels a day capacity. A total of 1,250 people are employed either directly or with contractors.
Jonathan Oxley, CBI Humber cluster director, welcomed the latest addition to the project pipeline, adding: "The Humber is operating on a world class scale with what we're trying to do here."
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