SLB Offshore Wind Initiatives for 2025: Key Projects, Strategies and Partnerships

SLB’s Pivot to Profit: Analyzing the Commercialization of Carbon Capture & Storage

Once a titan of traditional oil and gas services, SLB is aggressively repositioning itself as an architect of the energy transition. While its strategy is multifaceted, a detailed analysis of its recent activities reveals a particularly sharp and successful pivot towards Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). The company is moving beyond strategic alliances and is now securing the foundational contracts for Europe’s most ambitious decarbonization projects, signaling a critical shift from market entry to commercial leadership.

From Alliances to Infrastructure: The Commercial Adoption of CCS

Between 2021 and 2024, SLB’s engagement with the CCS market was primarily strategic and foundational. The period was defined by the formation of crucial joint ventures, most notably the finalization of the SLB Capturi venture with Aker Carbon Capture in June 2024. This move was a clear signal of intent, combining Aker’s specialized modular capture technology with SLB’s global scale and deep subsurface expertise. This phase was about building the necessary corporate vehicle and integrated offering to compete, rather than deploying it in the field.

The year 2025 marked a definitive inflection point, transitioning SLB from a potential CCS player to a core execution partner. The strategic groundwork laid by the SLB Capturi JV began to yield tangible, high-value commercial wins. In June 2025, SLB secured an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract for the subsea injection system for Equinor’s Northern Lights CCS project expansion. This was immediately followed in July 2025 by a major contract with the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) to manage the construction of six CO2 storage wells in the UK North Sea. The nature of these engagements—moving from JVs to EPC contracts for critical infrastructure—demonstrates that industrial-scale CCS is leaving the pilot phase, and major operators are now entrusting SLB to build it. This shift from capability-building to large-scale deployment validates the company’s strategic pivot and highlights the emerging commercial reality of the offshore CCS market.

From Seed Capital to Strategic Deployment

SLB’s investment strategy reflects a broad commitment to the energy transition, with a stated goal of achieving $3 billion in new energy revenue by 2030. While direct investment figures for its CCS division are not isolated, the company’s capital allocation across adjacent technologies creates a powerful ecosystem. Investments in digital capabilities, operational hubs, and enabling technologies like hydrogen and thermal storage underscore a holistic approach where CCS is a central pillar. These financial commitments, culminating in the major project wins of 2025, signal a transition from speculative investment to capital deployment against secured revenue.

Table: SLB Strategic Investments (2022 – 2025)

Building a Decarbonization Ecosystem Through Partnership

SLB’s partnership strategy has evolved from establishing broad energy transition capabilities to securing focused, project-specific contracts for its CCS business. The timeline shows a clear progression from foundational joint ventures like OneSubsea and SLB Capturi to leveraging those entities to win work with major energy operators. The partnerships in digitalization and automation with firms like AIQ and Cactus Drilling, while not exclusively for CCS, build critical competencies that enhance the efficiency and de-risk the execution of complex CO2 storage projects.

Table: SLB Strategic Partnerships (2023 – 2025)

A Concentrated Bet on Europe’s Decarbonization Hubs

The geographic focus of SLB’s CCS activities has sharpened dramatically. Between 2021 and 2024, its energy transition partnerships were geographically diverse, spanning Norway (Aker), the US (Nabors, Lafayette hub), France (TotalEnergies), and Belgium (John Cockerill). This reflected a broad, global strategy of building capabilities across multiple clean energy verticals. However, in 2025, the commercial CCS activity became highly concentrated in Northern Europe. The landmark contracts for the Northern Lights and Northern Endurance Partnership projects place SLB at the heart of CCS development in Norway and the UK North Sea, respectively. This demonstrates that these two regions are currently the world’s most mature and active markets for large-scale offshore CO2 storage. SLB’s success here validates its strategy of targeting first-mover markets. The risk is a heavy dependence on the policy and regulatory environments of Northern Europe, but the immediate reward is a commanding position in the only regions currently building CCS infrastructure at scale.

From Packaged Solutions to Deployed Infrastructure

The maturity of SLB’s CCS technology offering has undergone a rapid evolution from concept to commercial reality. The 2021–2024 period was characterized by technology integration. The cornerstone event was the formation of the SLB Capturi joint venture, which was explicitly designed to combine Aker’s modular capture hardware with SLB’s subsurface and technology integration capabilities. The offering was, at this stage, a comprehensive but largely unproven commercial package.

The year 2025 marks the critical validation point for this technology stack. With the EPC contracts for Northern Lights and NEP, SLB is no longer just marketing a solution; it is actively deploying it. The company is now constructing the entire CO2 injection system, from subsea hardware to the management of multiple storage wells using its proprietary Sequestri carbon storage solutions. This moves the technology from a “commercially ready” status to “commercially deployed” on nationally significant infrastructure projects. This transition provides definitive proof that SLB’s integrated CCS offering is not only technically sound but also bankable and trusted by the industry’s largest players for complex, first-of-a-kind projects.

Table: SWOT Analysis of SLB’s CCS Business

The Year Ahead: From Contract Wins to Flawless Execution

The data from 2025 sends an unequivocal signal: SLB has successfully navigated the transition from CCS strategy to revenue-generating execution. The focus for the year ahead will pivot from winning contracts to flawless delivery. Market actors should pay close attention to progress reports from the Northern Lights and Northern Endurance Partnership projects, as any schedule slips or technical challenges will be highly scrutinized. The integrated Sequestri solution is what is gaining traction, and its successful deployment will be SLB’s most powerful marketing tool.

Looking forward, we should expect SLB to leverage its North Sea success as a blueprint for other regions. The next logical step would be to secure a flagship CCS project in the US Gulf Coast, activating its Lafayette operations hub for the energy transition. The key signal to watch for is the application of its digital partnerships—specifically the AI developed with AIQ and TotalEnergies—to optimize the ongoing CCS projects, which would demonstrate a unique, tech-driven competitive advantage. For SLB, the race to enter the CCS market is over; the marathon of execution has just begun.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most significant indicator of SLB’s success in the Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) market?
The most significant indicator is the company’s transition from forming strategic partnerships to winning large-scale, high-value Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contracts in 2025. Securing contracts for critical infrastructure on major European projects like Northern Lights and the Northern Endurance Partnership signals that SLB has moved from a potential player to a core execution partner trusted to build industrial-scale CCS.

How did SLB’s CCS strategy change between the 2021-2024 period and 2025?
Between 2021 and 2024, SLB’s strategy was foundational, focusing on building capability through joint ventures like OneSubsea and SLB Capturi. In 2025, the strategy pivoted to commercial deployment. The company began leveraging those JVs to win tangible EPC contracts, shifting its focus from creating an integrated offering to actively building the physical infrastructure for major CCS hubs in Northern Europe.

What specific projects demonstrate SLB’s new commercial leadership in CCS?
Two landmark projects secured in mid-2025 demonstrate its leadership. First, an EPC contract for the subsea CO2 injection system for Equinor’s Northern Lights project expansion. Second, a major contract with the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) to manage the construction of six offshore CO2 storage wells in the UK North Sea.

According to the analysis, what is the biggest risk for SLB’s CCS business now?
The biggest risk has shifted from market entry to project execution. The company’s CCS reputation is now directly tied to the successful and timely delivery of the complex Northern Lights and NEP contracts. Failure on these flagship projects would be a major setback. A secondary risk is the heavy geographic concentration of these contracts in Northern Europe, making the business dependent on a single region’s policy and project timelines.

How do SLB’s partnerships, such as the SLB Capturi joint venture, contribute to its overall strategy?
SLB’s partnerships are crucial for building a complete decarbonization ecosystem. The SLB Capturi joint venture with Aker Carbon Capture, finalized in 2024, was a key strategic move to create a dedicated commercial vehicle for CCS. It combined Aker’s specialized modular capture technology with SLB’s global scale and subsurface expertise, creating the integrated, market-ready offering that proved essential for winning major deployment contracts in 2025.

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