Wintershall Dea and CapeOmega selected for CO2 storage permit off Norway

Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has selected Wintershall Dea Norge and CapeOmega to receive an exploration permit for CO2 storage on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) in the North Sea.

The Luna license is located 120 kilometers west of Bergen and is estimated to hold a CO2 storage injection capacity of up to 5 million tons per year.

Wintershall Dea is the operator of the license with 60 per cent of the shares, with CapeOmega holding the remaining 40 per cent of shares.

The permit is offered with a binding work program that ensures rapid and efficient progress, or return of the areas if project development comes to a halt.

“Capture and storage of larger amounts of CO2 is necessary for the world to reach its ambitious climate goals. This award strengthens the development of this important climate initiative,” said Norwegian minister of petroleum and energy Terje Aasland.

“This award goes to two companies that have matured a good project for the storage of CO2. There is interest from the industry in further advertising for land on the Norwegian continental shelf.”

The Ministry received applications from Wintershall Dea Norge, CapeOmega and TotalEnergies EP Norge for the acreage in June.

So far, three CO2 storage permits have been granted on the NCS. Permit EL 001 was awarded to Northern Lights in 2019 and, this April, two more permits were allocated, one in the North Sea and one in the Barents Sea.

The North Sea one was awarded to Equinor, while the license in the Barents Sea was offered to a group consisting of Equinor, Horisont Energi, and Vår Energi. 

The ministry awarded Equinor the operatorships for the two licenses referred to as Smeaheia and Polaris.

In addition, Equinor and Wintershall Dea recently agreed to pursue the development of an extensive carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain connecting continental European CO2 emitters to offshore storage sites on the NCS.

The partnership intends to connect Germany, the largest CO2 emitter in Europe, and Norway, holding Europe’s largest CO2 storage potential.

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The article was updated at 03:55 p.m. on 5 October with additional information.