The largest London-listed independent oil and gas company said this morning that it was targeting the first CO2 destined for North Sea storage as early as five years from now.

Harbour Energy's plans involve the Acorn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at St Fergus.

Harbour, which was unveiling its half-year results today, said it was committed to proactively addressing its environmental impact and taking action to achieve its 2035 net-zero goal.

The firm is participating in two early-stage CCS projects in the UK - V Net Zero in England and Acorn.

Harbour said that, once developed, these developments could store multiple times Harbour's annual emissions.

It added: "Harbour, together with its partners, continues to progress the Acorn project.

"In March, Shell was appointed technical developer for the capture, transportation and storage modules of the project which has the potential to address up to nine million tonnes per annum of CO2.

Harbour plans

"Subject to receiving clarity on inclusion of V Net Zero and Acorn in Track 2 of the UK Government's process to sequence the deployment of CCS projects, as well as the fiscal, regulatory and commercial framework, Harbour is aiming to progress both CCS projects to a final investment decision in 2024 - with first CO2 injection as early as 2027.

Acorn CCS can repurpose existing gas pipelines to take CO2 directly to a storage site offshore.

Harbour's latest results show a big jump in hydrocarbons production year-on-year.

In the first half of 2022, the daily output was 211,000 barrels of oil equivalent (boe) as against 151,000 boe in the same period in 2021.

Pre-tax profits hit £1.257billion as against £101million in the first half of last year as the company and its rivals benefited from the rocketing price of hydrocarbons.

Harbour CEO Linda Cook said: "We delivered a strong first-half performance - realising value from past acquisitions, increased production efficiency and significant investment in our asset base.

"We improved our safety record, materially increased production, reduced GHG (greenhouse gases) intensity and progressed our CCS projects while continuing to invest in our existing portfolio.

Tolmount gas

"Our Tolmount project alone - brought onstream in April - has increased UK domestic natural gas supply by over 5%.

“At a time when many are struggling with high energy prices, we are increasing investment by around 30% compared to last year, focusing on doing what we can to deliver reliable, domestic oil and gas from our existing portfolio in a safe and responsible manner.

“In an environment of considerable fiscal, economic and geopolitical uncertainty, our strategy to build a global, diversified oil and gas company focused on safe and responsible operations, value creation and shareholder returns remains valid.

"We are financially strong and have continued to deleverage our balance sheet at pace. As a result, we have significant optionality over our future capital allocation including for continued organic investments, meaningful M&A and additional shareholder returns."

Harbour has around 1,700 employees globally.

The North Sea business unit has two offices in the Aberdeen area at Kingswells and on Anderson Drive.

London-headquartered Harbour was founded in 2014 by private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners with a strategy to acquire conventional, cash-generative, producing assets outside of North America.

First acquisition

In 2017, Harbour made its first acquisition - backing Chrysaor Holdings to acquire a package of UK North Sea assets from Shell and, in 2019, it acquired ConocoPhillips UK North Sea.

Then last year, through a reverse takeover, Chrysaor merged with Premier to create Harbour.

The company's portfolio of licences in the UK comprises a mixture of producing assets, development, pre-development assets and exploration licences.

Its UK offshore operated positions include Greater Britannia, J-Area, the AELE Hub, Solan, Catcher, the East Irish Sea and Tolmount Area in the southern North Sea.

The firm also have material non-operated stakes in numerous long-life assets including Clair, Buzzard, Beryl, Elgin/Franklin and Schiehallion.

Onshore, Harbour owns the Rivers terminal at Barrow-in-Furness and has interests in the Sullom Voe oil terminal in Shetland.

Its UK pipeline system interests include the Central Area Transmission System, European Transmission System, the Shearwater Elgin Area Line , the Graben Area Export Line , the West of Shetland Pipeline System and the Brent Pipeline System.

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