The UK’s carbon storage industry has reached a major milestone with the drilling of the first appraisal well on a licensed carbon storage site under the North Sea Transition Authority’s (NSTA) 2023 licensing round.
Operated by Eni, the well was drilled on the Hewett field in the Southern North Sea as part of the Bacton Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project.
It represents the first such well to be drilled on acreage awarded in the world’s first large-scale carbon storage licensing round.
The Hewett field, located 18 miles off the Norfolk coast, was one of the UK’s longest producing gas fields before being permanently shut down in 2023.
Eni now plans to repurpose the site to store up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 per year from the Bacton and wider Thames Estuary area, providing potential decarbonisation routes for UK and EU emitters.
Eni’s Valaris 72 rig began drilling in May 2025, collecting extensive data including 270 feet of core samples and nitrogen injection testing. The information gathered will inform future development plans by assessing reservoir conditions, injection potential and well integrity.
Andy Brooks, NSTA Director of New Ventures, said: “The carbon storage industry has entered an exciting period of delivery, with two multibillion-pound projects getting the go-ahead in the past year, unlocking thousands of supply chain jobs. Long-held ambitions for this industry, which is essential to the UK’s energy transition, are rapidly becoming reality.”
The UK continental shelf is estimated to hold up to 78 gigatonnes of storage potential — enough to capture all UK emissions since the industrial revolution.
The NSTA anticipates around 100 stores will need to be appraised to meet net zero targets.
The Bacton CCS project builds on the recent permit awards for Liverpool Bay CCS and the Northern Endurance Partnership, which together could store more than 200 million tonnes of CO2.
Test well marks major step for carbon storage industry appeared first on Energy Live News.