courtesy BP

BP has pulled out the Peterhead carbon storage and power project that would have used the fast-emptying Miller field as storage for carbon-dioxide separated from a coastal power-plant’s hydrogen.

The move is a blow to U.K. government Kyoto emissions targets and to BP: The supermajor had spent $50 million over 18 months on Peterhead but was now being asked by government to bid for the right to build along with other carbon-tech technologies.

"It was becoming technically and economically difficult the life and keep alive the Miller-field long enough to receive carbon-dioxide to accomodate the outcome of the government process to decide on a technology," BP spokesman David Nicholas told OilGas24.com.

Government funds would have gone to the winner, but BP declared it could not oblige Trade Secretary Alistair Darling’s decision to launch a Peterhead competition, having spent so much with no guarentees.

BP had announded its project around the time Statoil and Shell had proclaimed plans for a large-scale carbon sequestration, transport and reserves-boosting project for carbon sent to the offshore Draugen and Heidrun fields from a new Tjeldbergodden power plant. The Shell-Statoil target is 2.5 million tonnes of stored carbon-dioxide annually, but Peterhead was unique for its hydrogen-producing component.

The Miller field came complete with a carbon-tolerating pipeline to an empty reservoir.

The U.K. oil company recently formed the jont venture Hydrogen Energy with mining outfit Rio Tinto and declared plans for carbon-capture projects and technology pooling at sites in Australia and California.

Statoil and Shell recently gathered three top carbon-capture technologies at a site outside Stavanger.

ws@oilgas24.com