Page 33: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (May/Jun 2023)

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to meet its climate goals. company formed, some cross-border CO2 transport deals

There’s been a notable recent surge in offshore carbon struck, transport ships ordered, and recently, signifcant capture and storage news, with offshore storage licenses re- onshore works completed in Øygarden municipality in cently either granted or pending in the U.K. and Norway, Norway, where CO2 receiving terminal is being built.

a giant offshore CCS project sanctioned in Malaysia, as

THE SIZE well as projects planned for the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

For now, let’s focus on a project that, while not yet The Northern Lights JV plans for the project to have an pumping CO2 under the seabed in Norway, already has initial storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes CO2 annu- signifcant milestones to show for and will soon be ready ally, with the captured CO2 set to be permanently stored for operation – the Northern Lights. in a saline aquifer, 2,600 meters beneath the seabed.

The Northern Lights – a celestial phenomenon name The plan is for CO2 from emitters who sign deals with for a project that’s mostly about the areas below the sea- Northern Lights JV to have their CO2 offtaken by lique- bed – is led by a joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and fed CO2 carriers, shipped to the onshore plant in Øygar-

TotalEnergies, which entered a partnership to work on the den for an intermediate storage, and then transported by a offshore CO2 storage project back in 2017. 110 km pipeline to an offshore subsea storage.

Back in 2019, while the project was still being in the While the initial storage capacity is 1.5 million tonnes works and yet unsanctioned, Equinor's then Chief Execu- of CO2 per year, plans are in place to increase capacity as tive Eldar Saetre said Nothern Lights could become the demand grows across Europe. world's frst cross-border CO2 storage. In 2020, Northern Lights drilled the frst CO2 explora-

Since then, the project has been approved, backed by tion well that confrmed that the reservoir in the Johansen the Norwegian government, offshore storage capacity and formation, at 2.600 meters depth, is suitable for safe and offshore injection tests completed, Northern Lights JV permanent CO2 storage.

Northern Lights will transport 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per year on ships from Yara in the

Netherlands from early 2025, and store it under the seabed in Norway.

Northern Lights

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