Express Engineering to deliver subsea actuators for Northern Lights

The UK-based Express Engineering has secured a contract to provide subsea actuators for the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project in the North Sea.

Express Engineering will deliver subsea actuators to Aker Solutions’ plant in Curitiba, Brazil, where they will be installed on the master valve block on a subsea tree that will control the pipeline.

When initial trials start in 2022, the actuators will form an integral part of the flow control system when injecting the CO2 into a redundant well.

The subsea system has been adapted to reverse the flow to lock in carbon gases below the sea floor, the company said.

“It’s great to be involved in the Northern Lights initiative – the first of its type in Europe – where we are utilising our capabilities and actuator technology”, said Gary Thirlwell, managing director at Express Engineering.

“It takes Express Engineering further into the exciting carbon capture arena, allowing us to invest in securing a cleaner environment while opening up new green opportunities for our technologies in the global market for advanced engineering solutions”.

At the end of 2020, Aker Solutions secured an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with Equinor to deliver the CO2 receiving facilities as well as the subsea equipment for injecting captured CO2 into a reservoir for permanent storage.

In March, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy approved the development plan for Northern Lights built by Northern Lights JV DA company and backed by Equinor, Shell, and Total.

Due to be fully operational in 2024, Northern Lights is part of the Norwegian government’s Longship project for establishing full scale CO2 capture, transport and storage facilities in line with the country’s international climate agreements.

According to the developers, the project will allow industrial sites in Norway and companies across Europe to capture and store their carbon emissions safely and permanently at 2,600 metres below the seabed off the Norwegian coast.