UK player’s affiliates find work on Eni’s CCS project destined to serve HyNet

With over 200 companies in its arsenal, RSK Group, a UK-headquartered environmental and engineering solutions provider, has disclosed assignments for eight of its business arms at a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, which is being brought to life by Italy’s Eni, to contribute to the delivery of CO2 transportation and storage infrastructure designed to facilitate the HyNet CO2 pipeline.

Eight RSK companies will support the Liverpool Bay CCS project, thanks to a deal with United Living Group, whose subsidiary, United Living Energy, part of its infrastructure services business (ULIS), was selected by Liverpool Bay CCS (LBCCS), a member of Eni, as one of the primary contractors to deliver CO2 transportation and storage (T&S) infrastructure.

The ULIS project is estimated to be worth approximately £250 million over three years and will create 300 roles across the supply chain. United Living believes the facility will be instrumental in enabling the HyNet CO2 pipeline, which aims to unlock a low-carbon economy for North West England and North Wales. RSK’s work, which began in September 2024, is expected to continue until the completion of construction in June 2027.

Furthermore, this pipeline is seen as the first step in unlocking the benefits and ambitions of the wider HyNet North West project and achieving the UK’s net-zero target by 2050. Covering 34 kilometers of new pipeline, with the additional repurposing of an existing 24-kilometer, running from Ince, Cheshire, near RSK’s head office at Helsby, to Point of Ayr in North Wales, the project is expected to permanently store 4.5 million tons of CO2 annually in its first phase, scaling up to 10 million tons by 2030.

Rob Domeney, RSK’s Environment Director, commented: “We are also contributing to a large number of CCS projects nationwide at all phases of development, from optioneering, feasibility and consents strategy, through consenting, development consent order (DCO) and environmental impact assessment (EIA), to pre-construction and construction support.

“With this project, we are delivering against a series of deadlines with various DCO requirements and secondary consents, protected species licences and other inputs required before construction can commence. But this is where the teams’ experience really comes into its own and our ability as a group to pool our multidisciplinary resources is very effective.”

The award of three carbon storage permits from the North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) for Liverpool Bay CCS allowed Eni to begin preparing the stores for the initial injection of 4.5 million tons of CO2 per year, starting as soon as mid-2028. These permits came alongside the economic license from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

RSK’s support of the CCS project follows the recent completion of another carbon capture initiative involving 12 group businesses, which assisted Heidelberg Materials UK’s planning application for the Padeswood CCS project in North Wales, deemed as the first carbon capture-enabled cement works in the UK.

Domeney underlined: “In addition, the project will use more than 50 RSK colleagues across the group to provide ecological surveys, licences and mitigation, archaeological mitigation, advice and support on ground contamination, mining, groundwater and surface water, flood risk planning, landscape design and management and noise, air quality and arboriculture inputs.

“RSK Group companies supporting the project include RSK Biocensus (ecology), Headland Archaeology, RSK Geosciences (coal mining, contamination, surface water/groundwater monitoring and materials management plans), LDE (flood risk and hydrology), ADAS (arboriculture and soil survey), Stephenson Halliday (landscape design), RSK Acoustics and Ian Farmer Associates.”

Domeney, who confirmed that RSK has been contracted to provide pre-construction and construction environmental support to the Liverpool Bay CCS project, elaborated that the development would enable the HyNet CO2 pipeline to take CO2 captured by industrial emitters across the region and transport it through new and repurposed infrastructure for permanent storage at Eni’s depleted natural gas reservoirs under the seabed in Liverpool Bay.

RSK’s Environment Director emphasized: “The project is in its early stages, with a number of survey teams on-site and ecological and archaeological mitigation in progress, as well as a comprehensive ground investigation programme.

“Headland Archaeology has 2 teams of archaeologists working on the project and expects its work will involve 276 archaeological trial trenches. Once the initial phases of our work are complete, we look forward to supporting the ULIS team into full construction.”

Eni hired Rosetti Marino to handle engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) work related to four platforms to be used for CO2 storage in depleted reservoirs at the CCS project, shortly after picking Saipem for the EPC and assistance with the commissioning of a new CO2 electrical compression station, designed to be integrated with the offshore and onshore segments of the overall development.

The first phase of HyNet is designed to store 109 million tons of CO2 over 25 years in the East Irish Sea, 20 miles off the coast of Liverpool. This is the equivalent of taking 60.1 million cars off the road for a year.

By taking CO2 from large-scale industrial emitters in northwest England and north Wales, the system will unlock about £2 billion (around $2.7 billion) worth of supply chain contracts and create 2,000 construction jobs, according to the NSTA.