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The leading representative body for the offshore energy industry, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), has recognised a new industry supply chain strategy and an accompanying report, commissioned by government, as a catalyst for developing the UK’s carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) economy.
OEUK says the industry-led ‘CCUS Supply Chain Strategy’ and government’s ‘Opportunities for economic growth in the UK’s CCUS industry’ report mark a big leap forward in terms of understanding the economic growth that CCUS can offer.
The publications outline how CCUS can provide benefits not only for the UK’s decarbonisation efforts, but also to UK jobs and export potential – and in particular, can provide high-value opportunities for UK supply chains. The trade body has previously highlighted the big economic benefit of CCUS – estimating that UK carbon capture and storage could be worth £100 billion to local manufacturing employers by 2050.
In its 2022 ‘CCS Supply Chain Report’, OEUK analysis showed that supply chain companies in the UK offshore oil and gas sector are in a prime position to win work in carbon capture and storage if urgent action is taken from industry and governments to give the supply chain transparency and visibility of work.
Commenting on the publications, OEUK’s Head of Energy Policy, Enrique Cornejo, said:
“This industry-led strategy, supported by a supply chain report commissioned by government, provides a clear basis for creating a common understanding across the CCUS value chain – which is pivotal if the UK is to scale up this technology as a commercially viable carbon cutting solution.
“It includes voluntary supply chain reporting mechanisms to support the delivery of the voluntary 50% UK content target and it identifies high-value supply chain items and a taxonomy for CCUS goods and services – a positive step to potentially facilitate procurement, increase UK content, create thousands of domestic jobs.
“It’s clear the UK stands to win big from CCUS if we can learn to utilise the skills of our offshore energy industry and build upon our existing engineering and technical expertise to design for a sustainable future.
“The UK already has many of the components necessary for a successful CCUS sector – a big potential market for exports of technology and expertise, large industrial clusters, extensive gas transport infrastructure and a good scientific understanding of the geological requirements needed for long-term CO2 storage.
“But there are challenges that need to be addressed if we are to fully capture the lion’s share of work here in the UK – domestic fabrication capability, supply chain visibility, and bottlenecks in demand for supply chain services, to name a few. This report, alongside the CCSA’s new CCUS Supply Chain Strategy, provides the basis for consensus, collaboration and coordination across sectors to ensure the economic benefits are felt by communities here in the UK.”
Editor’s notes
- Media are invited to join an OEUK briefing next week on CCUS. Please email [email protected] for details on how to join.
- OEUK participated in the development of the CCUS Supply Chain Strategy alongside the CCSA and supply chain companies. Our members will play a critical role in the successful development of CCUS in the UK and we look forward to continuing working with government and other industry bodies in the implementation phase of this strategy.
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