Norway’s Northern Lights Facility: World’s First Cross-Border CO2 Storage Ready to Launch

Norway’s Northern Lights Facility: World’s First Cross-Border CO2 Storage Ready to Launch

(IN BRIEF) The Northern Lights CCS facility in Norway is now operational, becoming the world’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage project. A joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, it is part of Norway’s Longship initiative and aims to decarbonize industrial processes in Europe. The facility will store 1.5 million tons of CO2 annually and plans are underway for future expansion.

(PRESS RELEASE) STAVANGER, 27-Sep-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — The Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility, located in Øygarden near Bergen, Norway, is now fully operational and ready to begin receiving and storing CO2. This groundbreaking project, the world’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage initiative, is a joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies. The official opening on 26 September 2024 was conducted by Norwegian Energy Minister Terje Aasland, marking a significant step forward in the global effort to combat industrial emissions and promote decarbonization.

The Northern Lights facility is a core part of Norway’s full-scale CCS project, Longship. It includes the capture of CO2 from industrial sites, the transport of liquefied CO2 by ship to Øygarden, and subsequent transportation via pipeline to an offshore storage site under the North Sea seabed. The facility will initially store 1.5 million tons of CO2 annually, with plans for future capacity expansion already in motion.

Equinor CEO Anders Opedal highlighted the facility’s importance for the energy transition, noting its role in enabling European industry to decarbonize through CCS technologies. He also emphasized the collaboration between governments, industry, and regulators, which was key to bringing the project to fruition.

Equinor has been responsible for the construction of both the onshore and offshore components of the facility. Funded 80% by the Norwegian state, the Longship project demonstrates how public-private partnerships can accelerate the development of large-scale CCS solutions. Northern Lights is expected to significantly impact the industry, with ripple effects including over 900 man-years of employment and 1.7 billion NOK in deliveries during 2023 alone.

Equinor and CCS

Equinor continues to work on a broad portfolio of CCS projects and license opportunities. We operate CCS at our Snøhvit and Sleipner fields on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. In Northwest Europe, the UK and the US we mature new capture, transport and storage projects onshore and offshore. Such new developments require continued collaboration between governments, industry, customers and regulators to enable large scale CCS solutions.

Northern Lights

• Northern Lights JV is a registered, incorporated General Partnership with Shared Liability (DA), equally owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell.
• The Northern Lights facility consists of a receiving terminal, injection pipeline and subsea installations.
• Equinor has been in charge of building the onshore plant in Øygarden as well as the offshore facilities on behalf of Northern Lights JV and partners. The budget of this scope is 7.5 billion NOK. This does not include the ships or the CO2 capture plants.
• The first phase of this development of the value chain is 80 per cent funded by the Norwegian state as part of the Longship project.
• Longship is a comprehensive CCS project initiated by the Norwegian government, aiming to demonstrate CO2 capture, transport, and storage at scale.
• Northern Lights, a key part of this initiative, focuses specifically on the transport and storage elements.
• Captured and liquefied CO2 at the customers sites is transported by ship to the onshore receiving terminal at Øygarden.
• From the terminal, CO2 is transported by pipeline for storage in a reservoir 2.600 meters under the seabed in the North Sea.
• The Northern Lights project created ripple effects in 2023 of 1.7 bn NOK in deliveries, over 900 man-years and 1.3 bn NOK in value creation.

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SOURCE: Equinor ASA