UK gas supplier Centrica and Norwegian energy firm Equinor plan to convert the Easington gas terminal in East Yorkshire into a low-carbon hydrogen production hub.

The two firms have signed a deal to jointly advance the project and say the new facility could meet 200MW of existing offtake demand in the local area and generate an additional 1GW of low-carbon hydrogen production.

Currently, up to 30pc of the UK’s total gas supply enters via the Easington gas terminal, much of it from Equinor’s Norwegian facilities.

The area is also earmarked as a potential landing point for the pipeline that will transport CO₂ from the East Coast Cluster carbon-capture development out for storage under the North Sea.

Access to these two pieces of infrastructure make the Easington area particularly suitable for blue hydrogen production.

Equinor is already developing the H2H Saltend and H2H Production 2 blue hydrogen projects in the region, which will form part of Zero Carbon Humber and the East Coast Cluster.

“The Humber is in a unique position to lead the way on industrial decarbonisation, with Equinor’s H2H projects at the forefront of this transition,” says Grete Tveit, senior vice-president for low-carbon solutions at Equinor.

“Partnering with Centrica to potentially develop a new hydrogen hub at one of the UK’s most significant industrial sites could help to transform this region’s energy mix while preserving and creating jobs and skills.”

Centrica is also advancing plans to convert its Rough offshore gas storage facility into a hydrogen storage site as part of its transition to a net-zero future. Rough is linked to the Easington terminal.

“The Rough field can become the world’s single-largest hydrogen storage facility,” says Chris O’Shea, CEO of Centrica.

Easington is also close to some of the world’s largest offshore windfarm developments, offering potential for green hydrogen production to be connected to the hub as well as blue.

Creating demand

As part of a separate project, Centrica announced in October that it was to start injecting hydrogen into a peaking gas-fired plant at Brigg in Lincolnshire from next year.

Injection volumes will start at 3pc of the gas mix before being increased incrementally to 20pc. Over the longer term, Centrica’s ambition is to move to 100pc hydrogen and deploy similar technology across all its gas-fired peaking plants.

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Author: Tom Young