Reflections from CCUS 2025 from Steve Anderson, Contracts Manager, UK & Europe

The CCUS 2025 Conference – the CCSA’s flagship UK conference – was held this year against a backdrop of unprecedented momentum for carbon capture, utilisation, and storage deployment across Europe and the UK. Steve Anderson of OGCS Global attended the event and provides his thoughts.

“After a week or two of reflection, I want to take the opportunity to say how much I thoroughly enjoyed attending the recent CCUS industry conference in London. 

For someone fairly new to CCUS, I thought it was an incredibly well run and thought-provoking conference – energising is a word I would use. This event has certainly opened my eyes to the scale of the challenges faced in developing these critical projects and delivering them into FID and execution. 

My key takeaways are:

1. Collaboration is critical:
   Cross-sector and cross-border alignment and cooperation, especially among developers, governments, and financiers, is essential to scaling CCUS deployment and to building a unified European CO₂ market; and

2. Public trust and investor confidence REALLY matters:
   Clear communication, competitive delivery, and policy alignment (avoiding overregulation) are vital to building and then maintaining public support, attracting and unlocking investment, and reducing a reliance on constrained government funding.

3. For 2025 and beyond, the focus for CCUS has shifted decisively toward delivery, financing, and large-scale implementation.
   CCUS is no longer a niche climate technology, it is a strategic economic and industrial priority.

Despite the challenges, however, given the passion and commitment of all those present to a Net Zero world, I left the conference with a deeper understanding of the sector’s latest developments, and  a renewed optimism for the future of carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

I am especially grateful to Nic Braley (General Manager, Acorn Transport and Storage), Matt Browell Hook (Peak Cluster and Morecambe Net Zero (MNZ)), Thomas Davey (SAF Project, Lighthouse Green Fuels), and Helen Rogers (CQLCP, Uniper Energy), for taking the time to meet with me and to showcase their projects. Their openness and commitment to driving progress in this space was inspiring.  Thank you."

“At OGCS, with our track record in UK and Europe of supporting Viking, Net Zero Teesside (NZT), Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and Project Greenstore, we stand ready to support you in this critical drive towards a more sustainable energy future.”

Connect with Steve Anderson to learn about our CCUS project experience.