Scottish startup inks ‘landmark’ deal for EU’s first operational CO2 storage facility

Scottish startup The Carbon Removers has secured what it says is a landmark deal for CO2 storage as part of Project Greensand in the Danish North Sea.

The Carbon Removers announced the agreement on December 10 to permanently sequester 50,000 tonnes of CO2 per year in a depleted oil field, 1,800 meters beneath the North Sea seabed, as part of the EU’s first operational CO2 storage facility, Project Greensand Future.

“The North Sea holds enormous potential to help Europe achieve its Net Zero goals. Partnering with Greensand Future aligns perfectly with our mission to provide practical, scalable solutions to carbon removal today, not tomorrow. We can now offer much larger volumes of permanent carbon removal of the highest quality to our expanding international customer base,” said Richard Nimmons, CEO of The Carbon Removers.

According to the company, the agreement significantly enhances its ability to deliver high-quality, permanent carbon removal credits, supporting companies across Europe in meeting decarbonization targets and accelerating progress toward a net-zero future.

On December 9, INEOS Energy, the day-to-day operator, with its partners Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden (the Danish North Sea Fund) reached the final investment decision (FID) to invest in the Greensand Future Project, which is the first commercial phase of the Greensand project that will establish Denmark’s first CO2 storage site at the Nini field in the Danish North Sea.

The Greensand Future Project aims to store up to 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually in the initial phase, with plans to increase capacity to up to 8 million tonnes annually by 2030.

The CO2 in the first phase of Greensand Future will be captured and liquified at Danish biomethane production plants, transported to the port of Esbjerg, and then shipped by Royal Wagenborg to the Nini West reservoir to be stored 1,800 meters below the seabed.

Project Greensand marked a world first on March 8, 2023, with the first-ever injection of CO2 in the North Sea, demonstrating that captured CO2 can be transported across borders and stored offshore. A couple of months later, the classification society DNV verified the safety of all aspects of the project’s CO2 storage.