Northern Lights: ‘World’s first’ cross-border CO2 transport and storage facility is officially open

September 26, 2024, by Ajsa Habibic

Northern Lights CO2 transport and storage facility, a joint venture (JV) of energy majors Shell, Equinor, and TotalEnergies, has been completed, marking “an important milestone for the global development of a business model for carbon capture, transport, and storage”.

The Northern Lights CCS facilities at Øygarden outside of Bergen. Photo: Northern Lights

The official opening ceremony of the CO2 transport and storage facility in Øygarden, near Bergen, was conducted by the Norwegian Minister of Energy on September 26, signaling that the facility is ready to receive and store CO2.

“The completion of the Northern Lights facility marks an important milestone for the global development of a business model for carbon capture, transport and storage. It opens a value chain for decarbonisation of European industry and energy and shows the role we and our partners take in developing low carbon solutions in the energy transition,” said CEO of Equinor, Anders Opedal.

“This project demonstrates what can be achieved when authorities and industry are working towards the same goal and co-invest to reduce risks. Equinor has several CO₂ transport and storage developments in our portfolio as operator and partner. The established Northern Lights value chain and experience from the project will be valuable in maturing and scaling up future CCS projects.”

The Northern Lights project is part of Norway’s efforts to develop a full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain named Longship. It comprises the development of a receiving terminal, underwater infrastructure (including the pipeline, subs installations, and wells), intermediate storage tanks, and onshore facilities.

A binding commercial agreement was also signed with Yara International to pave the way for the world’s first cross-border transportation and storage of CO2.

The full-scale project includes capture of CO2 from industrial sources and shipping of liquid CO2 to the terminal in Øygarden with LNG-powered CO2 carriers. From there, the liquified CO2 will be transported by pipeline to the offshore storage location below the seabed in the North Sea, for permanent storage.

Phase 1 with a capacity to inject up 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year is fully booked, and the joint venture partners plan to increase the transport and storage capacity for the future.