Thousands sign petition to stop CO2 pipeline

Exxon Mobil is seeking permission for an underground pipeline from its Fawley oil refinery

A petition to stop a carbon dioxide pipeline project coming to the Isle of Wight has gathered nearly 3,000 signatures.

Exxon Mobil unveiled plans on 18 July seeking permission for an underground pipeline to transport captured CO2 from its Fawley oil refinery near Southampton.

Little Atherfield resident Christopher Davis started the petition and said the project would leave a “massive scar” across the island.

Exxon Mobil said the firm wanted "to listen and to understand" views and encouraged people to take part in a consultation.

The American multinational oil and gas corporation said the CO2 would be taken to a deep rock formation in the English Channel for safe storage.

Further public consultations are planned over the planned corridors

The corporation is looking for views on its Solent CO2 Pipeline Project, which proposes three possible routes, two of which travel beneath the Isle of Wight.

The Isle of Wight North to South corridor is 26km long and stretches south from Lepe under the Solent seabed.

After passing to the west of Gurnard, it continues south to Little Atherfield.

The 24km Isle of Wight North to West corridor follows the same route from Lepe under the Solent seabed, before heading south west towards Dunsbury near Brook.

Mr Davis said the pipeline would “devastate” areas of outstanding natural beauty, and sites of special scientific interest, such as unique wetland and protected animal habitats, including those of endangered red squirrels.

Richard Quigley, Labour MP for Isle of Wight West, and Nick Stuart from Isle of Wight Council have criticised the project.

They both echo Mr Davis’s fears over the project’s impact on the island’s landscape.

The government has a general election manifesto commitment to carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, with £1bn of investment pledged for carbon capture deployment.

Michael Foley, ExxonMobil's low carbon solutions executive for the UK, said: "We are here to listen and to understand views on how the proposed consultation corridors would perform, and encourage everyone to take part.

"CCS is proven technology, which the UK Climate Change Committee, and the UK Government, consider key to achieving a significant reduction in industrial CO2 emissions – the industries that produce essential products that we rely on every day."