DNV’s scope at UK’s first offshore CCS project expands with independent certifier role

May 1st, 2026

DNV has been selected as the independent certifier for Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), the UK’s first offshore carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, and will verify that the project’s construction and operation comply with the carbon dioxide transport and storage licence (CO2 T&S license) granted by the UK’s Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero.

Source: Northern Endurance Partnership

Developed some 75 kilometers east of Flamborough Head, the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) project will comprise an onshore CO2 gathering network, compression facilities and a 145-kilometer offshore pipeline connected to subsea injection facilities in the Endurance saline aquifer located around 1,000 meters below the North Sea seabed.

The independent certifier function is a new regulatory requirement for the UK’s CCS sector, providing objective, evidence‑based assurance that nationally significant CO2 transport and storage infrastructure meets its license obligations before entering operation, DNV said.

Selected by NEP, the joint venture partnership between BP, Equinor and TotalEnergies, with approval from Ofgem, DNV’s scope covers the full transport chain, from receipt of CO2 at the compression facility, through conditioning to dense phase, to the offshore pipeline and injection system.

The certification process will establish the documented evidence required to demonstrate compliance and support a safe transition from construction to operation, the company said.

“Independent certification provides regulators and project partners with confidence that complex CO2 transport infrastructure has been delivered in accordance with its licence requirements,” said Hari Vamadevan, Senior Vice President and Regional Director for the UK & Ireland, Energy Systems at DNV.

“For NEP, this means verifying design integrity, construction quality and commissioning readiness, so that when CO2 first flows, the system performs as intended. Our role is to provide objective, evidence-based assurance grounded in decades of North Sea verification experience and technical expertise in CO2 pipeline integrity and risk management.”

DNV was also appointed in August 2025 under three-year contracts to deliver site inspection, quality assurance and quality control services for NEP and the Net Zero Teesside Power (NZT Power) project, covering the inspection of equipment and materials.

The NEP infrastructure will initially serve the Teesside-based East Coast Cluster (ECC) carbon capture projects – NZT Power, H2Teesside and Teesside Hydrogen CO2 Capture – that were selected for first connection to NEP by DESNZ in March 2023 as part of the UK’s cluster sequencing process for carbon capture usage and storage (CCUS).

Storage at the site is expected to start in 2028, making it the first operational CCS project in the UK. The initial phase is expected to see up to 100 million tons of CO2 stored in the Endurance aquifer over a 25-year period.