Greenlight given for Liverpool Bay CCS project

The project will operate as the backbone of the so called HyNet Cluster to transport carbon dioxide from capture plants across the North West of England and North Wales through new and repurposed infrastructure to storage in Eni’s depleted natural gas reservoirs, located under the seabed in Liverpool Bay.

In a statement, Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi said: “CCS will play a crucial role in tackling the decarbonisation challenge by safely eliminating CO2 emissions from industries that currently do not have equally efficient and effective solutions.”

The announcement of financial close for Eni’s Liverpool Bay Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project was made on April 24, 2025 by UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, at the Summit on the Future of Energy Security. Construction of HyNet will now begin, with operations scheduled to start in 2028.

According to Eni, HyNet will be one of the world’s most advanced CCS Clusters and will contribute to the reduction of emissions from a wide range of industries across the North West of England and North Wales.

Initial plants to be connected to the CCS system include Encyclis’s Protos Energy Recovery Facility, Heidelberg Cement’s Padeswood Cement Plant, Viridor’s Runcorn Energy Recovery Facility, and EET Hydrogen’s Hydrogen Production Plant (HPP).

The Liverpool Bay CCS project is predicted to generate over 2,000 jobs during its initial construction phase, while also safeguarding and creating thousands more through investment across the region. The majority of the £2bn supply chain contracts are being awarded locally.

“Today we keep our promise to launch a whole new clean energy industry for our country - carbon capture and storage - to deliver thousands of highly skilled jobs and revitalise our industrial communities,” said Ed Miliband, secretary of state for energy security and net zero. “This investment from our partnership with Eni is government working together with industry to kickstart growth and back engineers, welders and electricians through our mission to become a clean energy superpower.”