Europe Energy Review

New oil and gas discoveries, mergers and acquisitions, the UK’s most ambitious emissions-cutting target in the world, low-carbon energy milestones, and wind and hydrogen projects were announced this past month across Europe.

Oil & Gas

Equinor and its partners Vår Energi, Idemitsu Petroleum, and Neptune Energy announced at the end of March the biggest discovery so far this year on the Norwegian continental shelf. The discovery is close to the Fram field in the North Sea and preliminary estimates place its size at between 12 and 19 million standard cubic metres of recoverable oil equivalent, corresponding to 75-120 million barrels of recoverable oil equivalent.

“The discovery revitalises one of the most mature areas on the NCS. With discoveries in four of four prospects in the Fram area during the past 18 months, we have proven volumes that in total will create considerable value for society,” said Nick Ashton, Equinor’s senior vice president for exploration in Norway.

Neptune Energy said on 29 March that an appraisal well confirmed significant discovery at Dugong in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. Neptune’s revised estimate of the indicative recoverable resources is 40-108 million barrels of oil equivalent, which will be subject to further

detailed analysis and review. The discovery will be either linked to nearby infrastructure or developed as a stand-alone development.

Neptune Energy has also completed the acquisition of interests in several oil and gas fields in Emsland and the Grafschaft Bentheim region of Germany from Wintershall Dea.

The agreement will increase Neptune’s existing interests in the Adorf, Apeldoorn, and Ringe gas fields and in the Adorf-Scheerhorn, Georgsdorf, and Ringe oil fields, adding around 1,800 barrels of oil equivalent per day to Neptune’s production portfolio in Germany, an increase of around 10%.

In another deal in Europe, INEOS Energy agreed to sell its Norwegian oil and gas business to Poland’s PGNiG for US$615 million. The deal includes all INEOS Oil & Gas interests in production, licences, fields, facilities, and pipelines offshore Norway.

“The deal allows us to monetise a non-operated, predominantly gas portfolio at an attractive price compared to our hold value. This will further balance our portfolio of oil and gas and open up new opportunities to reinvest further into the energy transition,” Brian Gilvary, Executive Chairman of INEOS Energy, said.

Low-Carbon Energy

Targets & Milestones

The UK government said on 20 April it planned to set in law the world’s most ambitious climate change target, cutting emissions by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels. The UK’s sixth Carbon Budget will incorporate the UK’s share of international aviation and shipping emissions for the first time, to bring the UK more than threequarters of the way to net zero by 2050.

“The UK will be home to pioneering businesses, new technologies and green innovation as we make progress to net zero emissions, laying the foundations for decades of economic growth in a way that creates thousands of jobs,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.

Great Britain’s electricity grid was the greenest it has ever been at 1pm on 5 April, National Grid said, noting that the carbon intensity – the measure of CO2 emissions per unit – dropped to 39 gCO2, the lowest figure on record which broke the previous record set last May. On 5 April, nearly 80% of Britain’s power was coming from zerocarbon sources—39% from wind power, 21% from solar, and 16% from nuclear power generation, National Grid said.

The UK tops the G-20 group of nations for the share of wind in power generation, climate and energy think tank Ember said in its Global Electricity Review 2021.

According to Ember, wind power generation is rapidly replacing coal, which is declining faster in the UK than any other G-20 country.

Last year, the UK produced a greater share of electricity from wind than any other G20 country, as 24.2% of the UK’s electricity was produced from wind turbines in 2020. This is more than four times the global average of 6% and took the UK ahead of Germany to lead the G-20, Ember said. The UK also achieved the G-20’s fastest decline in coal generation since 2015, while the fall in the UK’s fossil gas generation in 2020 was the highest in the G-20, the think tank said.

Solar Energy Scotland called on the major Scottish political parties to consider boosting solar energy development in Scotland.

“Scotland currently sits bottom of the solar deployment league when compared to its neighbours, contributing just 2.5% of total capacity across the UK. Despite a comparable climate and population to Denmark, the land of innovation has less than a third of its solar capacity. With key barriers removed, Scotland could see its solar energy capacity grow by more than ten times existing levels,” Thomas McMillan, Chair of Solar Energy Scotland, said.

If barriers such as planning, business rates, and grid connection applications are removed, Scotland is well placed to increase solar power deployment to 4 GW, more than ten times current levels, by the end of this decade, McMillan said.

In wind power, the UK’s offshore wind sector will see the number of jobs jumping to nearly 70,000 by 2026, and the sector will invest £60.8 billion in total over the next five years in developing, constructing, and operating offshore wind projects as the industry expands rapidly to help the Government to achieve its net zero emissions goal, the Offshore Wind Industry Council (OWIC) said in a report at the end of March. Employment in the UK offshore wind sector is set to rise from 26,000 currently to over 69,800 by 2026, according to the Offshore Wind Skills Intelligence Model Report.

The UK financed the most wind energy in Europe in 2020, with 13.5 billion euro, almost a third of the total amount of all investment in wind energy in the region last year, WindEurope said in a report.

A study commissioned by the UK Oil & Gas Authority found that the Bacton area in the Southern North Sea has the potential to demonstrate energy transition in action by becoming a significant hydrogen production site for London and the South East. Blue hydrogen will be the most commercially viable option in the 2030s and early 2040s, which will provide the time for the maturation of green hydrogen technology and for green hydrogen to become more cost-competitive on an industrial scale by the late 2040s and early 2050s, the study says.

Low-Carbon Energy

Agreements & Projects

Shell, Harbour Energy, and Storegga became in mid-April equal partners in the Acorn Project, one of the largest and most mature UK CCS and hydrogen projects. The companies will develop Acorn through to Final Investment Decision, construction, operation, and beyond. Acorn CCS and Hydrogen Projects, expected to be operational in the mid-2020s, could provide critically important CCS and hydrogen infrastructure, helping industries and homes across Scotland and the UK to decarbonise.

bp joined forces with BMW Group and Daimler Mobility as a 33% shareholder in Digital Charging Solutions GmbH, to further accelerate the growth of electrification.

“Our aim is to make charging as convenient as refuelling at the pump – fast, reliable and a great customer experience,” said Richard Bartlett, bp senior vice president, future mobility & solutions.

Doosan Babcock and Aker Solutions agreed to jointly deliver projects for low- carbon solutions and renewable energy projects in the UK. This partnership will focus on pursuing and winning contracts for new hydrogen production plants, and facilities for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS).

SSE Thermal and Equinor unveiled plans to jointly develop two first-of-a-kind, low-carbon power stations in the UK’s Humber region, including

one of the UK’s first power stations with CCS technology, and the world’s first major 100% hydrogen-fuelled power station.

ScottishPower submitted in April a planning application to deliver the UK’s largest electrolyser. The 20-MW electrolyser will be the key component of a green hydrogen facility located close to ScottishPower’s Whitelee windfarm. The application also includes proposals for a combined solar, up to 40 MW, and battery energy storage scheme, up to 50 MW, to help power the electrolyser.

Baker Hughes and Horisont Energi AS have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the Polaris carbon storage project off the northern coast of Norway. The two companies will explore the development and integration of technologies to minimise the carbon footprint, cost and delivery time of carbon capture, transport and storage (CCTS).

Aker Offshore Wind and Hexicon entered a joint development agreement to explore opportunities for floating wind projects offshore Sweden that could generate several gigawatts of renewable power and support Sweden’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions.

Eight new projects have been launched to develop and test new wave energy technologies to help the UK achieve its net-zero goal, said UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), which supports the research with a £7.5 million investment.

Ørsted announced plans to develop one of the world’s largest renewable hydrogen plants to be linked to industrial demand in the Netherlands and Belgium. The SeaH2Land project is planned to link GW-scale electrolysis from a new 2-GW offshore wind farm in the Dutch North Sea to the large industrial demand in the Dutch-Flemish North Sea Port cluster through a regional crossborder pipeline.

Vattenfall, SSAB, and LKAB have launched the construction of a rock cavern storage facility for fossil-free hydrogen gas on a pilot scale next to HYBRIT’s pilot facility for direct reduction in Luleå in Sweden.