Headquartered in Aberdeen, TEPUK is one of the largest operators on the UK Continental Shelf in terms of production and reserves, with equity production of 189,000 boe/d in 2019 and supplying 18% of the UK’s gas needs. Total’s production in the United Kingdom comes principally from operated fields located offshore in three major zones, the Alwyn/Dunbar area in the Northern North Sea, the Elgin/Franklin and Culzean areas in the Central North Sea and the Laggan-Tormore hub in the West of Shetland area. We are focused on safety, innovation and efficiency while continuing our substantial investment in the UK.
Total has been investing and innovating in carbon capture and utilisation and storage (CCUS) technology for many years. We are now increasing our efforts in its development as, according to the International Energy Agency, this method could reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide by up to 14% by 2050. We allocate 10% of our R&D budget to CCUS technologies.
In the UK, we are partners in the Acorn CCS and Acorn Hydrogen projects led by Pale Blue Dot. Acorn CCS in the north east of Scotland is designed to be built quickly, taking advantage of existing oil and gas infrastructure and a well understood offshore CO2 storage site which has the first UK CO2 appraisal and storage licence to be awarded by the Oil and Gas Authority. Through the Acorn Hydrogen project, North Sea natural gas would be reformed into clean hydrogen, with CO2 emissions safely mitigated through the Acorn CCS infrastructure. Hydrogen would be used in transport applications, and in the gas grid to decarbonise heating in our homes and industries.
We are also partners in the Net Zero Teesside Project, alongside the OGCI and other oil majors, the first commercial-scale, fully integrated CCUS project in the North East of England. The project aims to decarbonise a cluster of carbon-intensive businesses by as early as 2030 and deliver the UK’s first zero-carbon industrial cluster, capturing up to 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions, equivalent to the annual energy use of over 3 million UK homes.
