Norway has opened the gateway to a massive undersea vault for carbon dioxide, marking a significant step towards launching what its operator calls the first commercial service for CO2 transport and storage.

The Northern Lights project plans to take CO2 emissions captured across Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs under the seabed. The aim is to prevent the emissions from being released into the atmosphere.

On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone was marked with the inauguration of a terminal built on the shores of the North Sea, rfi reported. It is here that the liquified CO2 will be transported by boat, then injected through a long pipeline into the seabed, at a depth of around 2.6 kilometres, for permanent storage.

Source: Equinor

Northern Lights is a Joint Venture between Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell. The partnership began in 2017, and construction of the facilities began in 2021 after the owners finalised their investment decision.

It will have an initial capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, before being ramped up to five million tonnes in a second phase if there is enough demand.

“Our first purpose is to demonstrate that the carbon capture and storage (CCS) chain is feasible,” Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn told AFP. “It can make a real impact on the CO2 balance and help achieve climate targets,” he said.

Greenwashing?

Northern Lights has secured cross-border deals with Norwegian fertiliser manufacturer Yara and energy group Orsted to bury CO2 from an ammonia plant in the Netherlands and two biomass power stations in Denmark.

Some environmentalists worry the technology could provide an excuse to prolong the use of fossil fuels and divert funds needed for renewable energies. They have also raised concerns about the risk of leaks.

“Northern Lights is ‘greenwashing’,” said the head of Greenpeace Norway, Frode Pleym, noting that the project was run by oil companies.

“Their goal is to be able to continue pumping oil and gas. CCS, the electrification of platforms and all of these kinds of measures are used by the oil industry in a cynical way to avoid doing anything about their enormous emissions,” he said.

More to come?

The North Sea, with its depleted oil and gas fields and its vast network of pipelines, is an ideal region to bury unwanted greenhouse gases. Several other undersea storage projects are under development in Europe.

The Greensand scheme, being built off Denmark’s coast by British chemicals group Ineos and 23 partners, is due to enter into service in late 2025 or early 2026.

In Italy, oil group Eni has tied up with gas transporter Snam to build a facility off of Ravenna.

Next steps

By developing an open-source infrastructure for CO₂ transport and storage, Northern Lights aims to contribute to establishing a commercial CCS market in Europe. On schedule to be ready to receive CO₂ in 2024, Northern Lights will be the first to deliver cross-border CO₂ transport and storage as a service.