Shell to enter carbon capture race

LONDON (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) is to enter a government sponsored race to build a carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant in Britain, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

The FT said Shell would join a consortium led by Scottish Power, one of three groups of bidders for government funding to build the first commercial-scale system for carbon capture and storage. The move would make it the only major oil company in the race.

"The core business of the oil and gas industry is the handling of gas and liquids above and below the surface -- that makes companies like Shell very well placed to help deliver CCS," Shell's vice president John Gallagher told the newspaper.

(Reporting by Kate Kelland. Editing by Bernard Orr)