Shell UK has awarded a front-end engineering design (FEED) contract to Technip for the onshore elements of the Peterhead gas carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration project in Scotland.

The FEED contract includes a grassroots carbon capture and compression plant and modifications to an existing combined cycle gas turbine power plant.

Located in Aberdeenshire, the CCS project is designed to capture, compress and transport carbon dioxide through a pipeline to an offshore gas reservoir for long-term storage beneath the North Sea.

The project is estimated to transport around one million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually by pipeline. It also supports development of key technology to reduce carbon emissions.

Technip’s operating centre in the UK, Milton Keynes, which executed a pre-FEED study for the Peterhead CCS project about 18 months ago, will execute the FEED for this next phase.

The UK office acts as a centre of excellence in developing end-to-end solutions for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Technip senior vice-president, process technology Stan Knez said “The company is devoted for the development of innovative, sustainable solutions for the customers and seeks to expand its footprint into the carbon capture and sequestration value chain.”

Shell is developing the Peterhead CCS project with strategic support from SSE Generation, owner and operator of the Peterhead power station.

The project was chosen in March 2013 as one of two CCS demonstration projects to progress to the next stage of the UK government’s CCS Commercialisation Competition funding.

The project’s FEED is the next stage of design, which has been approved through an agreement signed between Shell and the UK Government in February 2014. The FEED works are expected to last through 2014 and 2015.