Norwegian authority looks into Northern Lights CCS project

The Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has completed an audit of the joint venture behind the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage project (CCS) and some of its elements.

The PSA conducted an audit of the Northern Lights joint venture and the follow-up of pipelines and subsea facilities in connection with the namesake project on 27 and 28 March.

According to the Norwegian authority, the objective was to ensure that Northern Lights and technical service provider Equinor are meeting their operatorship responsibilities, following up their activities, and managing in compliance with both regulatory requirements and their own HSE requirements.

It was reported that the audit had not identified any non-conformities or improvement points.

Northern Lights is said to be the first industrial CCS project to develop an open and flexible infrastructure to safely store CO2 from industries across Europe. It is part of the full-scale Longship CCS project that entails the transportation, receipt and permanent storage of CO2 in a reservoir in the northern North Sea.

Captured and liquefied CO2 from European emitters will be loaded and delivered to the receiving terminal in Øygarden on board two LNG-powered, wind-assisted CO2 transportation ships.

The joint venture standing behind the project includes Shell, Equinor and TotalEnergies.

The first phase is due to be completed in mid-2024 and will have the capacity to permanently store up to 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year, with the ambition to expand to over five million tons per year in a second development phase.

Read more about the Northern Lights project HERE.