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8/28/2025, 10:28:28 AM
With the injection and storage of the first volumes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) deep beneath the seabed, Norway has formally begun operations at its Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies jointly own the facility, which is the first open-access CO₂ transit and storage site for third parties in the world. The CO₂ has been injected into the Aurora reservoir, which is situated in the North Sea around 2,600 metres (8,530 feet) below the seabed.
Heidelberg Materials' cement plant in Brevik, southern Norway, supplied the stored gas for shipping. Before being injected into the reservoir, the CO₂ was transported by a 100-kilometre (62-mile) pipeline after being dumped into onshore tanks at the Øygarden complex.
According to Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, the initiative demonstrated that carbon capture, transportation, and storage could be expanded into a whole industry. Taking the initiative from concept to reality was made possible by the Norwegian government's assistance and the companies' tight collaboration, he noted.
Notably, the Northern Lights project is a component of Longship, a state-funded CCS programme in Norway designed to assist hard-to-decarbonise industries like cement in reducing their emissions.
Equinor, functioning as the Technical Service Provider (TSP), has overseen the building of both the Øygarden onshore site and the offshore facilities on behalf of the joint venture. Additionally, the business will be in charge of running the CO₂ factory.
The Maritime Training Courses in Dubai describe how CO₂ is extracted from emission sources such as power plants, transported via pipelines, and geological storage alternatives are investigated. It highlights how crucial it is to safely inject and store initial CO₂ amounts, while maintaining the long-term safety and containment of stored CO₂ in subterranean formations.
The project demonstrates that governments, businesses, and consumers must work together to develop new value chains for CO₂ storage, said Irene Rummelhoff, executive vice president at Equinor.
With the commencement of injections, Northern Lights' first phase is complete. This means that the site may produce 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ annually (mtpa), or 37.5 million tonnes over 25 years. The entire capacity is already reserved.
Moreover, in March, the owners approved a Phase 2 investment of 7.5 billion Norwegian crowns ($743.93 million), increasing the facility's capacity to a minimum of 5 million tonnes per year. New onshore storage tanks, a jetty, and additional injection wells are all part of the project.
Furthermore, Phase 2 includes an arrangement to transport and store up to 900,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year from Sweden’s Stockholm Exergi. The financial programme Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF Energy) is supporting the expansion.
After all, this phase has advanced with the delivery of nine new CO₂ storage tanks to the Øygarden site this summer.
