- Dutch survey specialist Fugro has secured a contract from Saipem to provide integrated marine survey and inspection services for the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), the UK’s first offshore carbon transportation and storage project.
- The NEP project, located about 75 km east of Flamborough Head, will feature onshore CO₂ gathering and compression facilities and a 145 km subsea pipeline linking to injection wells in the Endurance aquifer, 1,000 metres beneath the North Sea.
- The project is expected to start storing CO₂ in 2028, with an initial capacity of up to 100 million tonnes over 25 years. It is a cornerstone of the UK’s plan to decarbonise industrial clusters on Teesside and the Humber.
Dutch geodata firm Fugro has been selected to provide critical marine surveys and inspection services for the project.
The Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) involves building an onshore CO₂ gathering network and compression facilities, then transporting the gas via a 145 km subsea pipeline to injection wells drilled into the Endurance aquifer, roughly 1,000 metres below the seabed.
The pipeline will run about 75 km east of Flamborough Head on the Yorkshire coast, with landfall near existing gas infrastructure. Once operational, the site aims to store up to 100 million tonnes of CO₂ over a 25‑year period. NEP is a joint venture between BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies, companies that have signalled strong interest in developing large‑scale carbon storage as part of their decarbonisation strategies.
Under the contract, Fugro will carry out nearshore pre‑lay surveys starting at the tunnel exit and extending several kilometres offshore, monitor the pipeline pull through shallow waters and verify correct placement and seabed stability.
In deeper waters, Fugro’s vessels and remotely operated vehicles will conduct route surveys, support installation and check crossings with other pipelines and cables.
The company’s director of marine asset integrity, Mike Duncan, said the project is technically challenging because the pipeline traverses varied seabed conditions and will connect multiple pieces of existing infrastructure; accurate geodata will be essential to reduce installation risk and ensure regulatory compliance.
CCUS clusters
The NEP is the flagship project in the UK’s mission to capture and store carbon emissions from heavy industry: a large‑scale carbon transport and storage system designed to collect CO₂ from power stations, hydrogen plants and industrial facilities in Humber and Teesside and inject it into a saline aquifer beneath the North Sea.
Saipem, the Italian engineering group, is leading the pipeline’s engineering, procurement, construction and installation.
The NEP is one of two clusters backed by the UK government’s first carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) funding round. The East Coast Cluster, which includes the NEP pipeline and storage site, is designed to decarbonise up to half of the UK’s industrial emissions by capturing up to 20 million tonnes of CO₂ per year by the late 2020s.
The project’s first phase targets up to 4 million tonnes per year, rising to 10 million tonnes as additional emitters connect. Fugro’s involvement underscores how specialised marine expertise is needed to translate CCUS plans into reality.
The contract signals that construction of critical CCS infrastructure is moving from concept to execution. Survey and inspection work is a prerequisite for laying pipe and installing offshore facilities. The project also demonstrates that oil and gas companies are repositioning themselves within the carbon economy: BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies have formed NEP to leverage their subsea experience and develop a new revenue stream from carbon storage.
It also highlights supply chain opportunities for UK marine and engineering companies. Fugro is Dutch, but the project will require local subcontractors, port services and fabrication yards.
If the NEP succeeds, it will be a blueprint for other carbon storage projects in the North Sea and beyond. The UK has identified vast storage capacity in depleted oil and gas fields and saline formations, potentially enough to hold decades’ worth of emissions. Realising that potential will require careful management of environmental impacts, transparent regulation and international cooperation, since CO₂ transport and storage will likely cross borders.
