SLB Secures Major Carbon Storage Contract for Northern Endurance Partnership’s Groundbreaking CCS Project in the UK
Global energy technology leader SLB (NYSE: SLB) has been awarded a significant contract to provide specialized technologies and services for carbon storage site development in the UK North Sea. This award comes from the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), a pioneering joint venture between bp, Equinor, and TotalEnergies, and marks a crucial milestone in the UK’s journey toward achieving net-zero carbon emissions.
The NEP is developing a robust and scalable carbon transportation and storage infrastructure that will support the East Coast Cluster — one of the UK’s most ambitious decarbonization initiatives. The cluster encompasses a range of carbon capture projects located in two of the country’s most heavily industrialized regions: Teesside and the Humber. These areas are home to multiple industries with high carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, making them key targets for decarbonization through carbon capture and storage (CCS).
To help realize this vision, SLB will deploy its Sequestri™ carbon storage solutions portfolio, a suite of advanced technologies specifically engineered and rigorously qualified to support the safe, efficient, and long-term storage of CO₂ in geological formations. As part of the contract, SLB is tasked with the construction of six carbon storage wells in the North Sea. The company’s project scope is comprehensive, encompassing drilling operations, advanced measurement and logging services, cementing, fluid management, completions, wireline logging, and high-performance pumping services.
The Sequestri™ portfolio represents SLB’s commitment to accelerating the deployment of carbon capture and storage systems worldwide. Designed with safety, monitoring, and efficiency in mind, Sequestri™ technologies are aimed at ensuring the long-term integrity of carbon storage sites, minimizing leakage risks, and optimizing site performance through every phase — from site assessment and development to monitoring and closure.
Katherine Rojas, Senior Vice President of Industrial Decarbonization at SLB, emphasized the strategic importance of this project.
“Technologies and services tailored for carbon storage will play a critical role in shifting the economics and safeguarding the integrity of carbon storage projects before and after the final investment decision (FID),” said Rojas. “We are excited to be a part of this groundbreaking CCS project in the UK, leveraging the proven carbon storage technologies in our Sequestri portfolio and our extensive expertise delivering complex CCS projects around the world.”
This collaboration with NEP is not only a significant win for SLB but also a major advancement for the UK’s clean energy transition. The NEP infrastructure is central to achieving the UK’s legally binding goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. As a backbone of the East Coast Cluster, NEP will enable the transport and permanent geological storage of CO₂ captured from multiple industrial sources — thereby decarbonizing some of the country’s hardest-to-abate sectors, such as chemicals, refining, power generation, and steelmaking.
The carbon dioxide will be transported via pipeline systems to offshore storage sites located beneath the North Sea seabed. A major component of the project is the Endurance saline aquifer, a vast porous geological formation located off the UK’s east coast, where CO₂ can be safely injected and stored thousands of meters underground. According to NEP, the Endurance site and its neighboring storage locations could eventually provide up to 1 billion metric tons of CO₂ storage capacity — a critical asset for long-term climate goals.
At project launch, the infrastructure is expected to have the capacity to handle and securely store up to 4 million metric tons of CO₂ annually, with the first injection targeted for 2028. This initial phase is only a stepping stone; the scalable nature of the infrastructure is designed to accommodate the rising demand for CO₂ storage as more capture projects come online across the UK and potentially beyond.
SLB’s award further reinforces its growing role in the global CCS market, a field that is expected to expand rapidly in the coming years as countries and companies strive to meet climate targets. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has identified CCS as a critical technology for net zero, especially in sectors where direct emissions reductions are difficult or prohibitively expensive.
This announcement also highlights the importance of industry collaboration in tackling the climate crisis. The NEP itself is a powerful example of cross-industry partnership, combining the technical strengths and global experience of bp, Equinor, and TotalEnergies. By aligning their resources and expertise, these energy giants are establishing a robust CCS backbone that could serve as a blueprint for similar efforts worldwide.
Furthermore, the involvement of SLB — formerly known as Schlumberger — adds deep operational capability and decades of subsurface experience to the project. The company has been making a deliberate pivot from traditional oilfield services to advanced energy transition technologies, and carbon storage is a central pillar of that strategy. Its Sequestri™ portfolio is already deployed in various CCS projects globally, positioning SLB as a key enabler of industrial decarbonization.
For SLB, the UK’s North Sea carbon storage initiative also presents an opportunity to demonstrate how its technologies can contribute to building confidence in the feasibility, reliability, and safety of CCS at scale. This includes leveraging digital and real-time data analytics to monitor injection rates, well performance, and reservoir behavior, all of which are essential to ensuring regulatory compliance and public trust.
With the clock ticking toward 2030 climate targets, projects like NEP’s East Coast Cluster and strategic technology partnerships like this one with SLB are essential to moving from pilot concepts to commercially viable, scalable solutions. They not only help reduce emissions in the short term but also lay the groundwork for a permanent, systemic transformation of the global energy infrastructure.
Key Takeaways:
- SLB has been awarded a comprehensive carbon storage contract by the Northern Endurance Partnership to support CCS development in the North Sea.
- The project supports the UK’s East Coast Cluster, targeting hard-to-abate industrial emissions in Teesside and the Humber.
- SLB will use its Sequestri™ carbon storage solutions to build six offshore wells and deliver end-to-end well construction and monitoring services.
- The NEP infrastructure will facilitate transport and permanent storage of up to 4 million metric tons of CO₂ per year starting in 2028, with a long-term storage potential of up to 1 billion metric tons.
- The initiative is a critical component of the UK’s net-zero ambitions and highlights the growing momentum around CCS as a necessary climate technology.
As governments and industries worldwide continue to prioritize carbon removal alongside emission reductions, the success of projects like this will be instrumental in determining the pace and effectiveness of the energy transition. SLB’s role in this landmark development signals a broader shift toward large-scale deployment of advanced carbon storage technologies — and sets a precedent for future collaborations in decarbonization.
