Whilst there have been some moves to international co-operation, most of the Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) programmes are governed by the laws of the country that is running them.

[3] This is of paramount importance off the coast of The Netherlands where the coastal waters are very shallow, but for Norway and the UK, decisions could be taken on a case-by-case basis, thereby affording the opportunity of re-using the infrastructure for CO2 storage.

[4] The previous use of drilling for oil and gas, and the plentiful availability of the saline aquifers on the sea bed, means that Norway and the United Kingdom share 90% of the identified locations that are geologically stable enough to store carbon dioxide under pressure.

[note 1][11] Despite the necessity to achieve carbon-zero programmes, there has been public opposition to storing carbon onshore, and the North Sea offers the largest offshore storage capacity in Europe.

[12] Whilst studies have developed the prospect of storing CO2 in the depths of the sea, where the pressure will keep it submerged, the preferred method is for storage in old oil and gas wells.

[17] Others have stated that whilst seepage from storage reservoirs may be inevitable, the loss rate will be negligible and the environmental impact of not storing CO2 would be worse.

[18] Similarly, a study conducted in the Forties Oil Field, determined that over a 1,000 year period, 0,2% of the CO2 would leach out of the storage facility and move upwards.

A study in 2012/2013, determined that of 43 wells observed in the North Sea, 28 were leaching methane, the second most important greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide.

[27] A consortium of three companies (Ineos, Maersk Drilling and Wintershall Dea) are running a project to store carbon in the Nini West oilfield.

The susbsea reservoir was confirmed as feasible in November 2020 after a drilling programme determined that it could store 450,000 tonnes (500,000 tons) of captured CO2 over a ten-year period.

[28] The Nini West subsea reservoir is estimated to be 1.4 miles (2.3 km) below the sea, and in an area which has been geologically stable enough to store oil and gas for 20 million years.

[33] The process involves passing the natural gas through an amine scrubber which removes the CO2, and then the amine/CO2 mix is heated up, producing a pure CO2 stream that is piped back down to the seabed and stored in a saline reservoir.

The five largest industrial areas that have been selected to work on this are Grangemouth in Scotland; Teesside, the Humber and Merseyside in England; and Port Talbot in Wales.

[41] In 2012, the government sponsored two projects to go forward with CCS; one at Peterhead/St Fergus in Scotland based on the combustion of natural gas, and the other at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire in England.

[43] Altogether, sites identified around the UK continental shelf have the capacity to store over 4 billion tonnes (including in the Irish Sea).

[44] Heavy industry on Teesside and the Humber Estuary, (known as the East Coast Cluster),[46] have combined to focus storing CO2 in a saline aquifer under the North Sea, under the name Northern Endurance Partnership.

[48][49] The Endurance storage site, which is 75–90 kilometres (47–56 mi) offshore of the Yorkshire Coast,[50] and 1.6 metres (5 ft 3 in) below the seabed,[51] was initially earmarked for a carbon capture project (the White Rose) from Drax power station, that was cancelled in 2015.

[57] The cancelled White Rose Project, planned for a pipeline to travel to the aquifer from the Humber area and make leave the coastline at Barmston.