©Northern Endurance Partnership / Core sample taken from well C43/30-2
The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) is confident it can safely store ‘million of tonnes’ of carbon dioxide in the coming decades after releasing findings from its first exploration well in the southern North sea.
As the first of two exploration and appraisal wells planned for 2026, NEP reported positive preliminary results from its C43/30-2 well, including around 500 metres of strong sealing rock above the 250-metre Bunter sandstone BC39 storage site.
Rich Denny, Managing Director of Northern Endurance Partnership, said the early results are “highly encouraging” for supporting carbon capture and storage solutions in the Humber and Teesside regions and UK’s carbon capture and storage ambitions.
“The data and operational experience gained will help shape future carbon storage developments, particularly as saline aquifer are expected to represent a significant share of the UK’s overall CO2 storage resource,” he said.
©Northern Endurance Partnership
Backed by BP (45%), Equinor(45%), and TotalEnergies (10%), NEP serves as the transportation and storage provider for the , aiming to decarbonise industrial heartlands in Teesside and the Humber.
The number of new CCS project announcements in in the last three years, according to research from the renewables-leaning Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).
It found a string of cancellations in 2025 underscores the economic and technical hurdles that CCS projects face in reaching final investment decision.
