CO2DeepStore, part of the Petrofac group, has signed an agreement with Shell U.K Limited (Shell) in respect of the re-development of the Goldeneye gas field in the North Sea, as a potential CO2 storage facility.

The agreement will see CO2DeepStore and Shell work together to develop the potential CO2 storage solution for the ScottishPower Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project - one of two contenders in the UK Government’s carbon capture and storage competition.

Work is currently progressing on the initial design phase for the carbon capture and storage demonstration project. If successful in securing Government support, this project will be the world’s first commercial scale CCS scheme to be fitted to a coal-fired power plant. Shell will be the Operator for the storage venture while Petrofac, through its subsidiary CO2DeepStore, will partner the project in addition to providing offshore engineering, modification and operations services to the storage venture through its Offshore Engineering & Operations business.

Petrofac’s group director of strategy, Rob Pinchbeck said: ”This important agreement highlights Petrofac’s commitment to the Carbon Capture and Storage sector and comes just six months after our acquisition of the CO2 storage specialist, CO2Deepstore. This is an exciting project and Petrofac is delighted to be involved in the early stages of this emerging new sector.”