World’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage facility ready to begin operations

The Northern Lights cross-border carbon capture and storage facility at Øygarden in Norway has been declared completed and ready to receive CO₂.

The official opening of the facility – a joint venture between Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies – was confirmed in a visit by the Norwegian Minister of Energy. The facility is expected to provide a vital outlet for large and hard-to-abate industrial emitters that need to decarbonise their processes.

It is part of the Norwegian full-scale CCS project Longship. This includes the capture of CO₂ from industrial sources and shipping of liquid CO₂ to the terminal in Øygarden before transportation – via pipeline – to the offshore storage location below the seabed in the North Sea.

“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” remarked Equinor CEO Anders Opedal.
The first phase capacity of 1.5mn tons of CO₂ per year is fully booked, and the joint venture owners continue to work on plans to increase the transport and storage capacity for the future.

“This project demonstrates what can be achieved when authorities and industry are working towards the same goal and co-invest to reduce risks,” added Opedal. “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.”