Elemental Energies Wins Two-Year Viking CCS Contract From Harbour Energy

Elemental Energies has signed a two-year contract with Harbour Energy to support the expansion of the Viking CCS project, the offshore carbon transport and storage development that targets injection of up to 4 million tons of CO2 per year from the early 2030s.

The independent subsurface and well engineering consultancy will deliver geomechanics, reservoir geology, subsurface modeling, and well engineering studies for the Viking East and Viking West extension sites, two storage locations beneath the UK Southern North Sea. The work aims to mature and de-risk storage capacity, seal containment, and long-term CO2 injectivity as the development advances toward a final investment decision (FID).

The additional storage locations sit alongside the project's anchor geological formation. Harbour Energy is developing them to scale capacity beyond the initial operational phase.

What does the contract cover?

The scope divides into four technical workstreams:

• Geomechanics — assessing rock and seal behaviour under sustained injection pressures
• Reservoir geology — characterising the Viking East and Viking West storage formations
• Subsurface modeling — building the predictive models that underpin capacity estimates
• Well engineering — designing the injection infrastructure the project will depend on

Each study feeds directly into the evidence base Harbour Energy needs before committing capital at FID. Storage capacity, containment integrity, and injectivity remain the three unresolved questions for any offshore storage site, and the contract assigns all three to a single integrated team.

Mike Adams, Chief Executive at Elemental Energies, framed the award in those terms. "Projects like Viking CCS demonstrate the value of bringing together subsurface, geomechanics and well engineering expertise within a single integrated team, providing the technical insight and assurance needed to manage risk and support confident decision-making," he said.

A hub built for the Humber cluster

Viking CCS is engineered to transport and permanently store captured CO2 from energy-intensive industrial facilities within the Humber regional industrial cluster, positioning the asset as a central decarbonization pathway for emitters across the region. Long-term plans call for capacity to scale as additional domestic and imported CO2 streams are integrated.

The contract expands Elemental Energies' footprint in low-carbon well engineering and subsea storage assurance. The consultancy already holds a portfolio of carbon transport and storage developments across the UK and Europe.

Momentum behind the project

The award follows a run of progress for the Viking CCS initiative. The project previously secured a £65.5 million development funding package. Work has also advanced on front-end engineering design (FEED) and on the onshore transport pipeline Development Consent Order (DCO), the consenting instrument that governs the overland section of the CO2 transport system.

Together, those milestones mark the sequence a project of this scale must complete before construction: funding, consent, FEED, and now the subsurface de-risking that Elemental Energies will lead through the two-year contract term.

What happens next

The decisive milestone is the final investment decision. Viking East and Viking West must demonstrate adequate storage capacity, proven seal containment, and workable injectivity before Harbour Energy commits to development. The early-2030s start date for the initial 4 million tons per year of injection capacity gives the consultancy a fixed window in which to deliver that assurance.

For the Humber cluster's industrial emitters, the practical question is whether the expanded storage sites mature on schedule. If they do, Viking CCS gains headroom beyond its anchor formation and a stronger claim on future domestic and imported CO2 volumes. If they do not, the hub's scaling path narrows to its initial capacity. The FID timetable, informed by the studies now underway, will settle the outcome.