The world’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage facility has been completed and is ready to receive and store CO2. The facility, a joint venture of Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies was officially opened on 26 September by the Norwegian minister of Energy presided over the official opening of the transport and storage facility, which is in Øygarden, near Bergen.
“The completion of Northern Lights marks an important milestone for the global development of a business model for carbon capture, transport and storage. It opens a value chain for decarbonisation of European industry and energy and shows the role we and our partners take in developing low carbon solutions in the energy transition,” says CEO Anders Opedal.
The project is part of a Norwegian full-scale CCS project named Longship, which aims to include capture of CO2 from industrial sources, and ship it in liquid form to the new terminal in Øygarden. From there, the liquefied CO2 will be transported by pipeline for permanent storage in an offshore storage location below the seabed in the North Sea.
“This project demonstrates what can be achieved when authorities and industry are working towards the same goal and co-invest to reduce risks. Equinor has several CO2 transport and storage developments in our portfolio as operator and partner. The established Northern Lights value chain, and experience from the project, will be valuable in maturing and scaling up future CCS projects,” said Anders Opedal.
The first phase capacity of 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year is fully booked, and the joint venture owners continue to work on plans to increase the transport and storage capacity for the future.
