A carbon capture and storage (CCS) project storing carbon dioxide 2,600 meters below the seabed of the North Sea has just made its first delivery of CO₂.
“We have reached an exciting milestone: We now injected and stored the very first CO₂ safely in the reservoir. Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation” says Tim Heijn, managing director of the Northern Lights JV, owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell. The first CO₂ volumes have now been transported through the 100-kilometre pipeline and injected into the Aurora reservoir.
Northern Lights said it is the first company to offer commercial CCS services.
CCS projects aim to capture carbon dioxide and store it permanently: reducing the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is seen as a key element of tackling climate change. While many industries are aiming to reduce their level of CO₂ emissions by changing their processes, there are some industries that are particularly hard to decarbonise, which is where capturing emissions can become useful.
Northern Lights offers CO₂ transport and storage as a service, with the aim of reducing industrial emissions in Europe. Once the CO₂ is captured from its source, it will be liquefied and transported by ships, injected and permanently stored below the North Sea.
In March 2035, Northern Lights said it was expanding its annual capacity to 5 million tonnes of CO₂, following the signing of a commercial agreement with Stockholm Exergi.
This year the CO₂ is from Norway, with CO₂ volumes from Denmark and the Netherlands expected to be added in 2026. Northern Lights will transport and store CO₂ from two Norwegian industries; Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik and the Hafslund Celsio’ waste-to-energy plant in Oslo. In addition, the Northern Lights JV has signed commercial agreements with Yara in the Netherlands, Ørsted in Denmark, and Stockholm Exergi in Sweden.
Read more on carbon capture and storage
- Carbon capture: Major bio-CCS project gets the go ahead
- CCUS: New carbon capture targets needed says report
- CCUS: Carbon capture and hydrogen projects in line for billions in funding
- The CO2 advantage
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