AS crunch time approaches in a competition that will have big implications for the net zero drive hopes are growing that a pioneering Scottish scheme will win a vote of confidence, although some remain sceptical about the technology concerned.

Supporters of the Scottish carbon capture and storage (CCS) cluster could hear next week whether it is one of the two that will be included on the fast track for development by the Westminster Government.

In the Ten Point Plan for a Green industrial revolution that he unveiled nearly a year ago, Boris Johnson said CCS would form a key element of the country’s effort to tackle the threat of climate change.

He held out the prospect of the UK becoming a world-leader in technology to capture and store harmful emissions away from the atmosphere, with a target to remove the equivalent of all emissions of the industrial Humber by 2030.

“To revitalise the birthplaces of the first industrial revolution, the UK will be at the global forefront of carbon capture, usage and storage technology, benefiting regions with industries that are particularly difficult to decarbonise,” said the Government at the time.

It promised to provide an extra £200 million of new funding to create two carbon capture clusters by the mid-2020s, with another two set to be created by 2030.

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The Government has said the winners of fast track status will be announced from next Monday, October 25.

In addition to the Scottish cluster, four schemes qualified to be considered for inclusion in the Track One programme. These include two covering the Humber area, one centred on North West England and North Wales and another focused on South Wales.

Supporters of the Scottish Cluster reckon it benefits from a range of advantages that mean it should rank ahead of the other schemes.

These include geographic factors in the form of large numbers of depleted North Sea fields off Scotland’s coast along with other subsea structures called saline aquifers that could be used to store carbon dioxide emissions.

Thanks to the legacy of the country’s North Sea oil and gas industry, Scotland is home to facilities that could be used to maximise the potential of these storage assets. These include the gas terminal at St Fergus, which is linked to fields by offshore pipelines that could be repurposed to carry CO2.

The Herald: The St Fergus gas terminal Picture: Acorn ProjectThe St Fergus gas terminal Picture: Acorn Project

Central Belt Scotland is also covered by pipelines that could be used to ship emissions captured from industrial plants, such as the massive Grangemouth refinery.

At Peterhead, Scotland has a deep water harbour that could handle shipments of CO2 from other parts of the UK and even from overseas.

Champions also note that current plans for the Scottish cluster are the culmination of years of work that has been done on CCS in Scotland. These have focused in recent years on the Acorn project, which will involve shipping emissions from St Fergus for storage in the Goldeneye reservoir.

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CCS schemes could draw on the huge expertise amassed by firms working on offshore oil and gas assets and related facilities onshore, such as petrochemicals plants. With work on engineering studies advanced, supporters are confident that Acorn could be operational by 2026.

It is envisaged that the Scottish cluster would eventually include developments across the country. These are expected to include a Direct Air Capture plant that would help deal with historic emissions by removing them from the atmosphere. CCS facilities could be used to support the production of ‘blue’ hydrogen from natural gas, which would involve separating out and storing the carbon dioxide concerned.

Scottish Cluster backers have held out the prospect of it generating huge economic benefits for Scotland in coming years. It could help breathe new life into the oil and gas supply chain and to stimulate the development of new industries. Thousands of jobs could be in prospect.

The Scottish Cluster’s case has been strengthened by the fact the plans have won backing from hard-headed investors from around the world.

Work on the plan has been led in recent years by Storrega, which acquired the Banchory-based minnow behind the Acorn project in 2020. Storrega made that move in the expectation that it could make fairly rapid progress with Acorn and won backing from Australian investment bank Macquarie, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Japanese industrial giant Mitsui. In July, investment heavyweight M&G joined the shareholder list at Storrega. The business is led by Nick Cooper who ran a range of successful oil and gas operations.

After working on Acorn, Royal Dutch Shell and the private equity-backed Harbour Energy oil and gas business recently decided to become equal partners with Storrega in the project.

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In July the partners agreed to work with Grangemouth refinery owner, INEOS, to develop Scotland’s first carbon capture and storage system linking the country’s industrial heartland to the Acorn hub.

But other clusters have also won notable votes of confidence.

Partners in the East Coast Cluster covering Humberside and Teesside include oil and gas giants BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies, as well as Shell, Associated British Ports and Drax, which operates a massive power plant near Selby.

The DelpHYnus proposal, which would link the South Humber Industrial area with Southern North Sea fields, is being led by Neptune Energy. It is backed by US financiers and China Investment Corporation.

HyNet North West says it is being developed by a set of global organisations with significant experience of major infrastructure deployment, such as Italian oil giant Eni and industrial heavyweights like Unilever and Pilkington.

The South Wales Industrial Cluster plan lists Dragon LNG, Costain and Tata Steel among its collaborators.

READ MORE: Orkney oil terminal to be tranformed into hydrogen production complex

But political factors could help dispose some ministers in the Scottish Cluster’s favour as Glasgow prepares to host the COP26 environmental summit on behalf of the UK. Boris Johnson’s claims to be acting in the interests of the United Kingdom could be boosted by him choosing Scotland to be the beneficiary of the huge amounts of Treasury support that will be provided for Track One projects.

However, some campaigners still have big reservations about CCS amid claims that the technology is unproven at scale. Some worry that it could provide an excuse to continue producing oil and gas.

Champions of CCS note that projects are already operating successfully overseas, including two off Norway, albeit in relatively modest form. They say the technology is actually less risky than the kind of exploration and production work that oil and gas firms have been doing for decades while there is no suitable alternative if we are going to deal with the massive quantities of emissions that are being produced. Nature-based solutions such as tree-planting are just not scalable enough.

The fact CCS could be used alongside oil and gas production would not appear to be an argument against trying to maximise the potential to use it to reduce the total volume of emissions that are being added daily to the atmosphere.