At EET Fuels, we’re leading the energy transition by performing today, transforming for tomorrow, and delivering the UK’s first low carbon refinery.
Our people are vital to achieving our ambition, and #redefined showcases the work that they are doing to deliver the fuels our community needs, now and in the future.
This month, we spoke to Marcos Matijasevic, who is Head of Low Carbon Transition and therefore has a lead role in the decarbonisation process which is transforming our business.
How would you describe your day-to-day role?
My role covers a wide spectrum of areas. I lead the engineering assurance team supporting the various decarbonisation projects under EET Hydrogen, EET Hydrogen Power and EET Fuels. We invest our time in working together within the various disciplines with our project teams based in both Mumbai and Stanlow to steer and define the scope of the engineering work required to meet the project objectives. We also work with our multiple engineering partners. Part of our remit is to develop scouting work that not only shapes our decarbonisation strategy, but also turns it into a clear, executable plan.
We work with other departments within the organisation to develop financial models for the various projects, securing financial support from banks and other financial institutions, developing heads of terms and contracts between the various companies involved with our EET businesses to support these projects. The interfaces are truly multiple and varied.
In my role, I also lead the work carried out through our project managers and their teams in developing bid submissions, typically to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) under its various competition frameworks.
Working with other companies within the HyNet cluster alliance is a key part of my working day. ENI is developing the carbon dioxide transport and storage infrastructure to be used by the future emitter plants across the region such as our EET Industrial Carbon Capture Plant. This plant will capture the carbon dioxide for our fluid catalytic cracker unit and from EET Hydrogen, which will produce low carbon hydrogen for the North West industrial region.
The hydrogen transport and storage system is being developed by Cadent and hydrogen storage, in Cheshire’s salt caverns, is being developed by Ineos. I represent EET Fuels in all the interfaces with the various companies which lead to the resolution of legal, commercial and technical aspects linking our companies. I meet regularly with other HyNet partners to ensure, we collectively align our activities so that our projects work in sync and integrate with our existing and future assets.
I’m also proud to be chair of the Hydrogen Advocacy and CCUS Committee within the Fuels Industry UK Trade Association (former UK Petroleum Industry Association) for the third year in a row. I also represent EET Fuels in the CCS Association, another key trading organisation which helps our business and other industrial sites across the UK to advocate for industrial decarbonisation through the deployment of CCUS technologies.
Through these trade associations, we steer responses on the various government consultations to ensure that we aligned with the policy objectives of the relevant department in government. This, along with our own responses, help to shape future policy affecting the oil refining sector in the UK, including the industrial carbon capture and low carbon hydrogen production business models, carbon border adjustment mechanism policy and the sustainable aviation fuel mandate.
How has your role been redefined to support EET Fuels in reaching its target to reduce its carbon emissions by 95% by 2030?
My role was created precisely to support EET Fuels in reaching its target to reduce its carbon emissions by 95% by 2030. Initially, I became Essar’s representative within the HyNet alliance and worked on the low carbon hydrogen production plant (HPP) project through its application process to become one of the first two blue hydrogen projects to be financially supported by the UK government. Along with my team, we then created the detail required to define a clear pathway to decarbonise the site whilst also generating business opportunities for EET. Subsequently, my team led several tender processes to ensure the other pillars of our decarbonisation plan moved through the required phases to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) status.
Today, my team and I spend a significant part of our time working collaboratively with our project teams, multiple engineering contractors and technology licensors based in various locations around the world to make decarbonisation a reality.
What does success look like in your role for 2024?
In 2024 we have already achieved a lot in terms of moving the industrial carbon capture and fuel switching projects through their current phase of development with basic engineering design packages almost complete. Our engineering team has expanded to support the projects and our engineering contractors have been brought on-board to execute the contracts. In March 2024, we completed the application process called ‘HyNet Track1-Expansion’ seeking revenue support from government for the industrial carbon capture plant and the second hydrogen production plant which we hope to hear a successful outcome on later this year.
As far as what’s yet to come in 2024, we hope EET Hydrogen reaches FID for HPP1. This is an important milestone for EET, as it is the enabler of everything else that follows. This project is also a key driver for our hydrogen-ready combined heat and power (CHP) plant which we expect to take to FID later this year.
Finally, we will be completing the preparations work for the planned 2025 turnaround event to incorporate tie-ins for the new crude distiller, hydrogen-ready furnace and the hydrogen-ready CHP. Together these will enable fuel switching at a later date; this is yet another key objective for this year.
In short, success this year will feel like a huge number of key milestones being achieved; ambitious, but totally achievable.
As a team, how would you say you are contributing to the UK's energy transition?
By shaping the way our refinery will look and function before the end of the decade and driving the changes required to make that happen. This will define the fuels and chemicals we will be selling, and the processes that will make them. Stanlow will keep its core processes, but will add a significant amount of infrastructure and plants that work synergistically with existing processes to create new low carbon energy vectors such as low carbon hydrogen and low carbon power while reducing Stanlow’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 95% before the turn of this decade
In your role, what do you think will be the key areas of focus or challenges in the next three years, and how do you plan to address them?
The key areas of focus are finalising the engineering, commercial, financial and legal scope of work required for our projects to reach FID, some of which are expected this year and others next year. From then, it’s all about resourcing our organisation to move into execution mode and construction. Not a simple task, but one we embrace with energy and enthusiasm, given the impact it will have on our site, our neighbours, our industry and more widely, the UK.
