General – CCS Well
Italian energy giant Eni has completed the drilling of the UK’s first offshore carbon capture and storage well.
The drilling campaign is part of an effort to determine whether the reservoir in the depleted Hewett gas field can safely store carbon dioxide.
The Eni-led Bacton CCS project aims to decarbonize power and industrial processes in the Bacton and Thames regions in eastern England.
It aims to store at least 10 million tonnes per annum of CO2 emitted from these two regions into the Hewett reservoir, which lies off the North Norfolk coast.
The completed CCS well is the first carbon storage appraisal well to be drilled on acreage that was licensed by the North Sea Transition Authority in 2023, the NSTA said.
The jack-up rig Valaris 72 was used to drill the well, and work started in May 2025.
Extensive data sampling was conducted, including cutting 270 feet of core and performing a nitrogen injection test, before the well was plugged and abandoned.
