Up to £220bn worth of energy projects could be allocated in the North Sea by 2030, including for depositing captured carbon dioxide.
North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) boss Stuart Payne laid out prospective investment opportunities off the UK’s east coast in a speech on Tuesday, suggesting the area would be central to the UK’s transition to cleaner energy.
Aside from the 6bn barrels of oil and gas yet to be gathered from the North Sea, carbon capture and hydrogen projects also offer opportunities, he pointed out.
“There is a wall of capital looking for energy projects to invest in across the globe,” Payne said, “we need to embrace the race” and attract it.
Depleted oil and gas deposits around the UK could house 78 gigatons of captured CO2, Payne said, equivalent to “all the CO2 emitted in the UK since the industrial revolution”.
The NSTA is due to award the first round of licenses for carbon capture project in the coming months, after 26 bids were submitted by 19 companies between June and September last year.
Although the authority is yet to name which firms placed bids, major oil firms BP PLC (LSE:BP.) and Shell PLC (LSE:SHEL, NYSE:SHEL) already have plans in place to invest in carbon capture projects.