Italian company Saipem has won a major contract from Eni to help build a new carbon capture and storage (CCS) project off the coast of northern England. The contract is worth about €520 million ($590 million) and is part of the HyNet industrial cluster. It is a major effort to cut emissions in one of the UK’s most carbon-heavy regions and support the country’s net-zero goal.
The Liverpool Bay CCS project will capture carbon dioxide (CO2) from industries across North West England and North Wales. The captured CO2 will then be transported through a network of pipelines and stored deep underground in old gas fields under the Irish Sea. These fields, such as Hamilton, Hamilton North, and Lennox, are owned by Eni.
The project is possible to complete in about three years and will play an important role in helping the UK meet its net-zero emissions goals. It could also create over 1,000 local jobs during the construction period, giving the economy a boost.
What Saipem Will Build: Connecting the Carbon Dots
As part of the project, Saipem will be responsible for the engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning support of a new CO2 compression station at Point of Ayr in North Wales.
This new facility will replace an old gas processing plant. Instead of handling natural gas, the new station will compress CO2 and send it to storage sites offshore. It will connect with both the project’s onshore and offshore parts, ensuring that the captured carbon can be transported safely and permanently stored underground.
In addition to the new compression station, other work includes:
- Retrofitting existing offshore platforms to handle CO2 instead of natural gas
- Repurposing 149 kilometers (about 93 miles) of existing pipelines
- Building 35 kilometers (about 22 miles) of new pipelines to link factories and other carbon sources to the network
These efforts will ensure that CO2 captured from factories, power plants, and other industrial sites can be securely stored and kept out of the atmosphere.
Zeroing In on the UK’s Net Zero Goals
The UK government has made carbon capture and storage a key part of its plan to fight climate change. It will spend £22 billion over 25 years on carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help reach its net-zero goal by 2050.
CCS captures carbon from heavy industries and stores it underground. But rising costs mean only 3 of the 8 planned projects will go ahead. These include the East Coast Cluster, led by BP and Equinor, and HyNet in western England and Wales.
- Together, they aim to remove about 3 million tons of CO₂ per year—much less than the 20 to 30 million tons first planned.
Critics say this could keep the UK tied to natural gas for years and slow down the shift to clean energy like wind and solar. The National Audit Office warns about delays, rising costs, and past CCS failures. CCS could help reduce industrial emissions. However, experts say more investment in renewables and energy efficiency is needed for a truly green future.
The government approved the HyNet project in October 2024.
Companies, like Heidelberg Materials, which makes cement, are ready to send their CO2 for storage. Other partners include Viridor, Ineos, Fulcrum Bioenergy, and Progressive Energy.
The Liverpool Bay CCS project aims to cut emissions from tough-to-clean industries, such as cement manufacturing and waste-to-energy plants. The project captures and stores CO2. This helps stop millions of tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere each year.
Liverpool Bay will store up to 4.5 million tonnes of CO2 each year in its first phase and increase that to 10 million tonnes annually after 2030. This effort directly supports the UK’s goal to store 20 to 30 million tonnes of CO₂ per year by 2030.
Eni recently got funding from the UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ). This support lets them proceed with construction.
In addition, Eni has received three carbon storage licenses from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA). These licenses cover the development of a storage system capable of holding 109 million tons of CO2 over the next 25 years.
This project is a major piece of the UK’s broader effort to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.
Saipem’s Growing CCS Business
For Saipem, the Liverpool Bay contract is another big win in the growing field of carbon capture and storage. The company reported a total backlog of €32.7 billion ($37.2 billion) at the end of March 2025, with CCS projects playing an increasing role.
Saipem said that the Liverpool Bay project shows how energy companies can reuse existing oil and gas infrastructure to support the energy transition. By converting old pipelines and platforms to handle CO2, the industry can cut costs and speed up the move toward cleaner energy.
In addition to the Liverpool Bay project, Eni is working on another CCS initiative in the Bacton Thames area in the southern North Sea. This project, called the Bacton Thames Net-Zero Initiative, aims to capture CO2 from industries around Bacton and the Thames Estuary. It could even accept CO2 from factories in the European Union, expanding its impact beyond the UK.
Turning the Tide in Liverpool Bay
The Liverpool Bay CCS project shows how old fossil fuel infrastructure can be given a new life in the clean energy era. Pipelines and platforms will now help fight climate change. They will safely store carbon underground instead of producing and transporting natural gas.
Construction on the new compression station at Point of Ayr and upgrades to the wider pipeline network will ramp up soon. If things go as planned, the Liverpool Bay CCS system may start capturing and storing CO2 by the end of the decade. This could significantly boost the UK’s climate efforts.
The region is leading by turning carbon-heavy industries into cleaner ones. This shows how industrial hubs worldwide can help meet global climate goals.
