Stockholm (NordSIP) – Carbon capture technologies have attracted entrepreneurs who wish to use profit-seeking to galvanise the necessary resources to clean the air we breathe for a long time. Although nature has long been able to do this through photosynthesis, the hope is that the application of modern technologies could allow companies to increase the scale at which the process is conducted beyond what evolution has been able to do.
However, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is still an incipient technology and as such, it is often criticised for high costs, energy intensity, storage concerns, among others. To address this issue, Norway’s Equinor partnered with TotalEnergies and Shell to set up Northern Lights JV is a registered, incorporated General Partnership with Shared Liability (DA) to develop and explore CSS technologies and opportunities. Now the general partnership reports it has successfully completed the storage phase of its first captured CO2.
“Lifting new value chains like CO2 capture, transport and storage requires collaboration and effort across the value chain – from governments, industry and customers. With Northern Lights in operation, we have proven that this is possible. Now, we look forward to leading safe and efficient operations on behalf of the Northern Lights partnership and use this as a stepping stone for the further development of CCS in Europe,” says Irene Rummelhoff, Executive Vice President of MMP in Equinor.
Northern Lights Plans and Recent Progress
The first phase of Northern Lights’ project is part of Longship, the Norwegian Government’s full-scale carbon capture and storage project. Northern Lights focuses on the transport and storage aspects of the value chain. The captured and liquefied CO2 from customer’s sites is transported by ship to the onshore receiving terminal at Øygarden. From the terminal, CO2 is transported via pipeline to a storage in a reservoir 2,600 meters under the seabed in the North Sea.
According to a Northern Lights announcement, the first CO2 volumes have now been injected and successfully stored in the reservoir 2.600 meters under the seabed. The CO2 is transported via ships from Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik. The CO2 is then offloaded and transported through a 100-kilometre pipeline and injected into the Aurora reservoir under the seabed of the North Sea.
“With CO2 safely stored below the seabed, we mark a major milestone. This demonstrates the viability of carbon capture, transport and storage as a scalable industry. With the support from the Norwegian government and in close collaboration with our partners, we have successfully transformed this project from concept to reality,” says CEO of Equinor, Anders Opedal.
This latest announcement marks the completion of phase 1 of the development, which has a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year (mtpa). The capacity of this phase is fully booked.
