Eni CCUS Holding has installed the Douglas carbon capture and storage (CCS) platform at Liverpool Bay in the UK — a 1,885-tonne topside that Eni calls the first purpose-built offshore platform in the world dedicated to CCS for industrial decarbonization.

The installation marks a concrete milestone for the Liverpool Bay CO2 Transportation and Storage (T&S) project, the offshore backbone of the HyNet industrial decarbonization cluster. Eni said the wider Liverpool Bay CCS construction program is now about 50% complete.

What will Douglas CCS actually do?

The platform will operate as the offshore hub of the Liverpool Bay T&S system. It will receive CO2 captured from industrial infrastructure across North West England and North Wales, then distribute the gas through a network of existing offshore pipelines repurposed for CO2 transport.

The destination is depleted natural gas reservoirs in the Liverpool Bay area, where the CO2 will be permanently stored. The project's economics rest partly on that reuse of legacy gas infrastructure — pipelines already in place on the UK continental shelf are being converted rather than built from scratch.

Eni CCUS Holding is jointly owned by Eni and Global Infrastructure Partners.

How was the platform delivered?

Eni delivered Douglas CCS in less than 18 months from contract award, under an accelerated program that integrated engineering, procurement, construction, and commissioning into a single execution track.

The structure itself breaks down into three weight components:

• A 1,885-tonne topside
• A 1,755-tonne supporting jacket
• Eight foundation piles with a combined weight of 730 tonnes, securing the platform to the seabed

That gives a total installed steel weight of roughly 4,370 tonnes — a modest payload by production-platform standards, but significant for a facility whose entire purpose is handling injected CO2 rather than hydrocarbons.

The platform integrates new infrastructure with existing offshore assets at Liverpool Bay, the former gas-producing complex that Eni is converting into the storage and transportation system for the HyNet cluster.

Where does the project stand?

Installation of the Douglas platform is one element of a wider construction program progressing across the entire Liverpool Bay CCS network. Eni puts overall completion at about 50% — meaning the offshore hub is in place while pipeline repurposing, injection facilities, and storage-site work continue across the system.

For the HyNet cluster's industrial emitters in North West England and North Wales, the critical question now is sequencing: when CO2 captured onshore can flow through the completed T&S network to the depleted reservoirs. Eni has not tied the platform installation to a first-injection date in its announcement, and the remaining 50% of the construction program will determine that timeline.

The watch item

Track Liverpool Bay CCS progress toward full network completion and the start of CO2 injection. With the offshore hub installed in under 18 months and the program at the halfway mark, the next hard numbers to watch are pipeline conversion milestones and first CO2 receipt at the Douglas platform.