North Sea Investment Surges as Gas Find, CO₂ Storage and Offshore Megaprojects Advance

Investment across the North Sea offshore energy sector is advancing on several fronts, spanning hydrocarbon exploration, carbon storage, wind power transmission infrastructure and digital oversight after decommissioning. Developments in Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and the UK illustrate the basin’s increasingly varied project mix.

Aker BP has discovered gas at the Alpehumle prospect in the Norwegian North Sea. The prospect is located 25 km north of the Duva field.

Saipem’s semisubmersible Scarabeo 8 drilled wells 36/4-2 and 36/4-2 A in 255 m of water within production license 1153. Drilling encountered a gas column measuring 10 m in the Agat Formation.

The Norwegian Offshore Directorate estimates that the discovery contains recoverable volumes between 1 MMboe and 15 MMboe. Although modest in size, the find could benefit from its proximity to existing infrastructure, potentially improving its development economics.

Aker BP and partners INPEX Idemitsu, Okea and Harbour Energy will now assess the results. The companies will determine whether the discovery is economic for development and whether additional delineation is warranted.

In Denmark, INEOS and its partners have opened the EU’s first full scale facility for transporting and permanently storing offshore CO₂. The launch marks the beginning of commercial operations at Project Greensand.

Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden are the other partners in the project. The CO₂ will come mainly from Danish biomethane plants before being captured, liquefied and transported by truck to a dedicated terminal at Port Esbjerg.

From the terminal, the CO₂ will be loaded onto Carbon Destroyer 1, a purpose built CO₂ carrier vessel. The vessel will transport the liquefied material offshore for injection into the Nini West reservoir in the Danish North Sea.

Nini West is a depleted oil field located 250 km offshore and approximately 1,800 m beneath the seabed. The initial commercial phase provides capacity to store as much as 400,000 mt/yr of CO₂.

Project partners plan to expand storage capacity to between 4 MMmt/yr and 8 MMmt/yr as demand develops across Europe. The expansion plan positions Greensand to serve a broader market for permanent offshore storage.

“Greensand is open for business, and a new European market for permanent CO 2 storage can now begin to take shape,” said Mads Gade, CEO of INEOS Energy Europe.

Offshore wind infrastructure is also progressing in the Dutch North Sea. Heerema Fabrication Group has held a steel cutting ceremony marking the start of jacket construction for TenneT’s IJmuiden Ver Gamma converter platform.

The structure will be the second jacket built at Heerema’s Vlissingen site for TenneT’s new generation of 2-GW offshore converter platforms. Heerema is already constructing the IJmuiden Ver Beta jacket and will also deliver the Nederwiek 2 substructure.

A consortium involving GE Vernova and Seatrium is the main contractor for the work. The consortium has commissioned Heerema’s Vlissingen operation to construct all three jackets.

Two structural sections for IJmuiden Ver Beta, each weighing 1,800 mt, were recently raised into position. The completed jacket will measure about 100 m long, 55 m wide and 46 m tall, with a weight of roughly 10,000 mt.

That jacket will support a topside weighing almost 30,000 mt. All three jackets are being constructed according to the same standardized 2-GW design, allowing fabrication methods and lessons to be carried from one project to another.

During operations, power electronics modules in the converter platform topsides will transform alternating current generated by offshore wind farms into direct current at 525 kV. This will enable electricity to be transmitted over long distances to shore.

In the UK North Sea, Ithaca Energy has contracted Viridien to provide environmental monitoring and marine situational awareness services at the Greater Stella Area. The work was awarded under a five year contract.

The program uses a monitoring approach for decommissioned assets that has been approved by the UK’s Offshore Petroleum Regulator for Environment and Decommissioning. It reduces reliance on conventional guard vessels through digital surveillance and environmental intelligence.

Viridien will combine AIS vessel surveillance through Sercel’s Marlin Vessel Tracking and Alerts platform with satellite environmental monitoring from its SeaScope service. The integrated system displays vessel movements, offshore infrastructure, geofences, proximity alerts, satellite imagery and interpreted sea surface data.

The monitoring system is designed to help Ithaca identify vessel activity and potential environmental events around decommissioned infrastructure. It will support regulatory compliance and asset stewardship across the Greater Stella Area.