Investors frequently discuss technical risk, regulatory risk, policy risk and commercial risk as separate categories. In practice, however, these risks are often interconnected. Ultimately, investors experience them through economics, schedules, performance, returns and repayment certainty.

One example is capital-cost uncertainty.

As CCUS projects develop, cost estimates can vary significantly. Contractors may be reluctant to provide similar performance guarantees they would offer for more mature technologies because they are operating with limited precedent themselves, with additional contingency allowances added to address perceived delivery and performance risks. That uncertainty is reflected in contracts, delivery strategies and project financing.

The same challenge can arise at asset interfaces. A turbine manufacturer may be comfortable providing guarantees for a standalone plant. Once a carbon capture system is integrated with that facility, guarantee structures may change because the interface introduces new variables and additional uncertainty.

This is where project delivery and investment decision-making converge. Understanding how technical uncertainties influence contracts, risk allocation and long-term performance is just as important as understanding the technology itself.

Jurisdictional differences influence interfaces between assets. Permitting frameworks, liability structures and carbon-market mechanisms all affect how risk is allocated across each CCUS ecosystem.

This is one reason experience from one market cannot always be applied directly to another. The underlying technology may remain largely unchanged, but the regulatory and commercial environment can significantly influence project risk and investment attractiveness. Understanding how technical, delivery and operational risks are managed in these environments can help build investor confidence.

For both debt and equity investors, investability ultimately comes down to confidence.

Debt providers focus primarily on downside protection and repayment certainty. Equity investors evaluate both risk and opportunity, including future value creation and growth potential. While their perspectives differ, both groups need confidence that the entire system can perform over the long term.

Investor confidence may be supported by understanding how technical performance, project delivery, commercial arrangements, permitting requirements and regulatory frameworks work together across the value chain.

Many investors view opportunity in CCUS as significant. But successful investment decisions require more than confidence in capture technology, storage capacity or transportation infrastructure alone. They require confidence in how those assets connect, interact and perform as a system.

For investors evaluating CCUS opportunities, due diligence should extend beyond the performance of individual assets. More revealing questions sit at handoff points: How will carbon move through the system? Who assumes responsibility when performance varies? How are technical, commercial and regulatory risks allocated across participants?

Answers to those questions can provide important insight into a project’s long-term investment potential, alongside capture technology and storage resource assessment.

As the CCUS market matures, investors may increasingly favour projects that demonstrate not only strong assets, but strong integration across entire systems.

Rish Chandarana, Director, Investment and Transaction Advisory, WSP

Rish Chandarana is an established commercial, technical and ESG infrastructure advisor with more than 20 years of expertise from working in the energy, renewables, transport and digital infrastructure sectors. He advises clients on the evaluation of project risks, identification of commercial growth opportunities and execution of strategies.

Dominic Cook, Technical Director, Energy Transition Advisory, WSP

Dominic Cook is an international energy transition specialist with more than 25 years of industry experience. He specialises in CCUS, thermal and renewable energy. Dominic is project lead on a WSP-led consortium acting as Technical Advisor to the UK Government on the delivery of its carbon capture, utilisation and storage programme. He also advises investors and lenders with technical due diligence on investments and divestments.