Costain Group PLC

15 March 2024

Costain Selected As Key partner for Landmark Carbon Capture Project

Costain to manage onshore CO₂ gathering systems for the East Coast Cluster

Costain Group PLC ("Costain") announces that it has been selected by Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) and the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) joint ventures, as one of nine specialist partners for engineering, procurement, and construction contracts with a combined value of around £4bn. 

Costain's involvement with NZT Power, NEP and its partners is to oversee and manage the engineering procurement and construction of the onshore CO₂ gathering system and associated utilities serving the East Coast Cluster. The contracts are subject to the receipt of regulatory clearances and final investment decisions (FID) being taken in September 2024 or earlier. Following FID, the projects would be aiming for commercial operations from 2027. 

NZT Power, a joint venture between bp and Equinor, could generate up to 860 megawatts of flexible, dispatchable low-carbon power equivalent to the average electricity requirements of around 1.3m UK homes. Up to 2m tonnes of CO₂ per year would be captured at the plant, and then transported and securely stored by the NEP in subsea storage sites beneath the North Sea.

NEP, a joint venture between bp, Equinor, and TotalEnergies, is the CO₂ transportation and storage provider for the East Coast Cluster (ECC). The Teesside onshore NEP infrastructure would serve the Teesside-based carbon capture projects - NZT Power, H2Teesside and Teesside Hydrogen CO₂ Capture - that were selected for first connection to the ECC by DESNZ in March 2023 as part of the UK's cluster sequencing process for carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS). It is anticipated that around 4m tonnes of CO₂ per year from these projects would be transported and stored from 2027. 

Costain is a recognised leader in energy infrastructure and in shaping energy transition solutions through its leading process design and programme management expertise. 

Ian Hunter, managing director Net Zero Teesside Power, said: "The selection of contractors is a major step forward for Net Zero Teesside Power. We have selected world-class partners who have the experience and capability needed to deliver. We aim to take final investment decision in September 2024 or before, after which we'd look forward to working with our EPC partners through the construction phase." 

Chris Daykin, general manager, Northern Endurance Partnership, said: "The selection of contractors is a clear signal of momentum within the East Coast Cluster. The Northern Endurance Partnership's CO2 pipelines are essential to connect carbon intensive projects to offshore storage and would play an important role in helping the region pursue its net zero plan." 

Alex Vaughan, CEO, Costain said: 

"This is an enormously important step forward for the UK in safeguarding our planet and unlocking sustainable economic growth and we are proud that Costain has been selected to play an integral part in progressing the energy transition and decarbonisation agenda. Having completed the front-end engineering design (FEED) for this landmark scheme, we look forward to playing a key role in its implementation. 

"Our team of experts are looking forward to working with Net Zero Teesside Power and the Northern Endurance Partnership to progress the decarbonisation of the critical local industrial ecosystem on this pioneering industrial cluster. 

"This is a critical milestone for the implementation of energy transition infrastructure; supporting economic growth, tackling climate change and improving lives, as outlined in the National Infrastructure Commission's recent Second National Infrastructure Assessment."  

Enquiries:

Investors and analysts                                                                   paul.sharma@costain.com

Paul Sharma, Costain                                                                      +44 (0) 7867 501188

Financial media - Headland                                                       costain@headlandconsultancy.com

Andy Rivett-Carnac                                                                         +44 (0) 7968 997 365

Charlie Twigg                                                                                     +44 (0) 7946 494 568

Notes to editors

Costain helps to improve people's lives by creating connected, sustainable infrastructure that enables people and the planet to thrive. We shape, create and deliver pioneering solutions that transform the performance of the infrastructure ecosystem across the UK's transport, energy, water, and defence markets.

We are organised around our customers anticipating and solving their challenges and helping to improve performance. By bringing together our unique mix of construction, consulting and digital experts we engineer and deliver sustainable, efficient and practical solutions.