UAE state-owned oil company ADNOC invests in UK-based carbon capture company Storegga

Emirati state-owned oil firm ADNOC has taken a 10% equity stake in carbon capture firm Storegga as part of its latest round of funding.

UK-based Storegga is one of the joint venture partners behind the Acorn CCS project centred on the St Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeenshire.

Shell, Harbour Energy and North Sea Midstream Partners are also involved in the Acorn project, which plans to capture CO2 emissions from a group of industrial emitters known as The Scottish Cluster.

The CO2 will then be transported via pipeline to St Fergus before being stored offshore in depleted gas fields in the North Sea.

In addition to the Acorn project, Storegga is also a partner in the Trudvang CCS project in Norway and the Cromarty Hydrogen Project, which received funding the UK government’s first hydrogen allocation round (HAR-1).

Storegga investor round

In addition to ADNOC, Storegga also received further investment from existing shareholders including Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC and Australian asset manager Macquarie (ASX:MQG).

Other Storegga investors include Japan’s Mitsui & Co and London-based M&G Investments.

Storegga did not disclose the total value of investments made by ADNOC or other investors in its latest fourth round of funding.

Announcing its “strategic investment” in Storegga, ADNOC said the transaction is its first international equity investment in carbon management.

The oil and gas firm said it is targeting a carbon capture capacity of 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) by 2030, equivalent to taking over 2 million internal combustion vehicles off the road.

ADNOC executive director for low carbon solutions and international growth Musabbeh Al Kaabi said the investment marks an “important milestone in the company’s decarbonisation journey”.“Carbon capture is an important tool to responsibly reduce carbon emissions and meet global climate goals and ADNOC will continue to scale-up this technology as we work towards net zero by 2045,” Mr Al Kaabi said.

Storegga CEO Nick Cooper said strategic collaborations are crucial for a “pragmatic, prompt and affordable transition to a low-carbon future”.“Storegga is therefore ready to stand alongside traditional energy suppliers to accelerate decarbonization by deploying cost-effective CCS globally,” Mr Cooper said.

“Over the past three years we have transformed from a single-project developer in Scotland to an international force driving global decarbonization efforts.“We are excited to now see ADNOC join our shareholder group.”

Latest ADNOC carbon capture investment

The investment in Storegga marks the latest carbon capture move by ADNOC.

ADNOC also operates Al Reyadah, the world’s first commercial scale operation to capture and store CO from the steel industry, with a capacity of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The company also recently awarded Petrofac a $600 million contract for its Habshan CCUS project.

In total, ADNOC said its committed investment for carbon capture capacity is now close to 4 mtpa.