Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (August 2023)

FOLLOW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS

The Transocean Enabler Rig was used to help estimate the capacity of the

Northern Lights storage.

Transocean shore CCS project sanctioned in Malaysia, as well as projects planned for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

For now, let’s focus on a project that, while not yet pump- ing CO2 under the seabed in Norway, already has signi? cant milestones to show for and will soon be ready for operation – the Northern Lights.

The Northern Lights – a celestial phenomenon name for a project that’s mostly about the areas below the seabed – is led by a joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, which entered a partnership to work on the offshore CO2 stor- age project back in 2017.

Back in 2019, while the project was still being in the works and yet unsanctioned, Equinor's then Chief Executive Eldar

Saetre said Nothern Lights could become the world's ? rst cross-border CO2 storage.

Since then, the project has been approved, backed by the

Norwegian government, offshore storage capacity and off- shore injection tests completed, Northern Lights JV company formed, some cross-border CO2 transport deals struck, trans- port ships ordered, and recently, signi? cant onshore works completed in Øygarden municipality in Norway, where CO2 receiving terminal is being built.

The Size

The Northern Lights JV plans for the project to have an initial storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes CO2 annually, with the captured CO2 set to be permanently stored in a saline aquifer, 2,600 meters beneath the seabed.

The plan is for CO2 from emitters who sign deals with www.marinelink.com 41

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