Shell, Equinor, and TotalEnergies to triple Norwegian CCS capacity with US$700m investment

Northern Lights

NORTHERN Lights, a Norwegian joint venture between oil giants Shell, Equinor and TotalEnergies, has agreed a 7.5bn NOK (US$710m) expansion of its CO2 transport and storage capacity.

The facility is slated to begin operating later this year with capacity to transport and store 1.5m t/y of CO2. The US$710m investment, which includes a €131m (US$142m) EU grant, is expected to increase capacity to 5m t/y by the second half of 2028. The added capacity will come from new CO2 storage tanks, pumps, a jetty, injection wells, and transport vessels.

Northern Lights plans to launch commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) this summer, transporting liquefied CO2 from Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik, Norway, to a reservoir 2.6 km beneath the seabed off Øygarden's coast. The company also says it will soon begin storing CO2 emissions from Hafslund Celsio’s waste-to-energy plant in Oslo.

The latest plans come off the back of an agreement with Swedish district energy provider Stockholm Exergi to transport and store 900,000 t/y of CO2 for 15 years, starting in 2028. 

Establishing a CCS chain

Tim Heijn, managing director of Northern Lights, said: “The decision to expand our CO2 transport and storage services represents the next step in building a commercially viable CCS market in Europe. It confirms Northern Lights’ commitment to offer an effective solution for companies to reduce emissions.

“The investment decision is an important milestone for our company, our customers and industry partners, governments and regulators.

“We have jointly been working hard to establish the CCS chain and make a real difference enabling Europe to achieve climate targets.”

Norwegian state-owned Equinor’s executive vice-president for marketing, midstream and processing, Irene Rummelhoff, described CCS as “crucial in the energy transition as it offers a solution for hard-to-abate industrial emitters to decarbonise their process”.

Shell, Equinor, and TotalEnergies have each been expanding their CCS operations in recent years. Last July, Shell announced plans to add a CCS facility at its refinery in Alberta, Canada, while Equinor and TotalEnergies are joint owners with bp of the Net Zero Teesside CCS project in the UK.