Subsea7 begins pipe spooling for Northern Lights CCS project

A Subsea7 pipelay vessel has begun pipe spooling for the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project being developed in Norway.

The vessel Seven Oceans arrived at Subsea7’s Vigra Spoolbase in Norway to spool the first section of the 100-kilometer pipeline that will run from Øygarden to Equinor’s CO2 storage complex in the North Sea.

Spooling began on the first stalk at the weekend via the 3,800 tonnes mounted reel, located on the vessel’s main deck. The operation will involve the spooling of 1,500 stalks of 12” rigid carbon steel pipe, with a wall thickness of 15.9 mm.

“The Northern Lights Project is an exciting opportunity for Subsea7 and marks an important step in Subsea7’s journey to enable the growth of emerging and renewable energies to make the energy transition possible,” said Senior Vice President Subsea7 Norway Monica Th. Bjørkmann.

Northern Lights 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. It is being developed by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies.

The CO2 receiving terminal will be located in the municipality of Øygarden in Western Norway. 

The first phase of the project 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.