Ministers back '20,000-job' carbon capture project

The company behind a major carbon capture scheme on the south bank of the Humber – which could 20,000 jobs during construction – says it will work with the government on the "critical steps" needed to bring it to fruition.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves confirmed for the Viking CCS Humberside project during her Spending Review speech on Wednesday.

The technology would extract emissions from industry in the Immingham area before transporting the gas via pipelines to be stored under the North Sea.

Graeme Davies, executive vice president at Harbour Energy, said the announcement sent "a strong signal" that the scheme was "an infrastructure-led economic growth priority in this parliament".

The government has earmarked £9.4bn in capital budgets towards carbon capture clusters, which it said would help the UK "achieve energy security and clean power".

The Viking scheme is one of two projects to be backed in the Spending Review, with a £200m investment announced for the Acorn Project, based in St Fergus, Aberdeenshire.

Planning consent for Viking was granted by the government in April and a final investment decision is expected to be taken later in this parliament.

A 55km (34-mile) pipeline would carry the extracted emissions from the Immingham area to the site of the former Theddlethorpe Gas Terminal on the Lincolnshire coast.

According to the government, Viking could approximately 20,000 jobs, including 1,000 apprenticeships, at the peak of construction work.

Once operational the Viking and Acorn clusters are expected to remove a total of 18-million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year.

The technology could also generate low-carbon power and enable hydrogen power.

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