Scotland's First Minister is upbeat about prospects for a major north-east decarbonisation project.
Nicola Sturgeon is cautiously optimistic of good progress for the Acorn carbon-capture and storage (CCS) initiative, ahead of a key UK Government announcement.
Westminster previously passed over the Scottish Cluster for Track 1 CCS funding, opting instead for schemes in England.
Instead, Scotland's bid, which has Acorn at its heart, was picked as a reserve cluster, with a general expectation it would be successful next time.
After much delay, an update on Track 2 of the funding competition is expected to be made in spring, UK Energy Minister Graham Stuart has confirmed.
Scottish Energy Secretary Michael Matheson recently warned there is a risk investors will pull out of Acorn, based at the St Fergus gas plant, due to the delay.
Good news hope
But Ms Sturgeon, speaking at Scottish Renewables' Offshore Wind Conference in Glasgow, is hopeful that good news isn't far off.
She told Energy Voice: "We've been pushing very hard for it to be accelerated and given support, and I am cautiously optimistic that we will see good progress on that in the coming months."
Movement on Acorn is "really important" for the north-east, Ms Sturgeon said, in light of the region missing out on a green freeport.
A bid that covered Peterhead and Aberdeen was put before the Scottish and UK governments, but it lost out to the Cromarty Firth and Forth.
It is expected that green freeports, which guarantee far-reaching tax incentives and light-touch regulation, will create thousands of jobs.
The north-east's failure to secure a green freeport was met with widespread fury locally earlier this month.
Clear case
Ryan Crighton, policy director at Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, said then: "The case for a north-east green freeport was clear. We have the skills, expertise and infrastructure - and with the tax and other levers of a freeport this region could accelerate the energy transition.
"Both governments must now work together to bring forward an additional green freeport, deliver the Acorn project and seriously reconsider their mistakes on oil and gas taxation and policy.
"If they allow the prize of becoming a global green energy hub slip away from Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire, they will never be forgiven for this catalogue of betrayals."
Ms Sturgeon also told Energy Voice: "All of the bids were really strong, and those that didn't succeed at this stage feel a sense of disappointment and concern about the future. That is true for all of them, but I suspect it is possibly even more true for Aberdeen, given the centrality of the region to the energy transition.
"It is really important, and this is a point we've made to the UK Government on this, that we continue to support those areas that didn't succeed to become green freeports."
Ms Sturgeon defended the decision to create the zones.
Scepticism
She said: "Some people have scepticism about freeports - do they really deliver added benefit? Or displace opportunities from elsewhere?
"I believe the answer to that can emphatically be 'yes', but that's what we've now got to demonstrate and to prove."