DNV has been appointed as the independent certifier for the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), the CO₂ transport and storage project underpinning the UK’s East Coast Cluster.

Developed by energy companies bp, Equinor and TotalEnergies, the project will transport captured CO₂ from industrial emitters in Teesside through an integrated onshore and offshore pipeline system for permanent storage beneath the southern North Sea, supporting large-scale industrial decarbonisation. The requirement for third-party certification reflects the UK’s evolving carbon capture and storage framework, which mandates independent verification for major CO₂ infrastructure.

DNV will verify that the project’s design, construction and operation comply with the UK government’s CO₂ transport and storage licence before the network enters service. Its scope covers the full CO₂ chain, including compression, conditioning to dense phase, offshore pipeline transport and injection into offshore storage reservoirs. The independent review will confirm system integrity, construction quality and operational readiness ahead of first CO₂ flows.

Hari Vamadevan, Senior Vice President and Regional Director for UK & Ireland, Energy Systems at DNV, said the company will provide “objective, evidence-based assurance grounded in decades of North Sea verification experience and technical expertise in CO₂ pipeline integrity and risk management.”

Rich Denny, Managing Director of the Northern Endurance Partnership, expressed confidence that DNV’s international CCS experience would be invaluable in supporting the safe and successful delivery of the project.