Tuesday 30 August 2022
‘World first’: Oil giants sign cross-border CO2 transportation and storage deal with Yara
Northern Lights, a carbon dioxide (CO2) storage company and joint venture owned by three oil giants, has signed the “world's first” commercial agreement on cross-border CO2 transportation and storage with fertiliser maker Yara.
The joint venture - owned by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies - and Yara will transport CO2 captured from ammonia and fertiliser plant Yara Sluiskil in the Netherlands and permanently store it under the seabed off the coast of Norway.
Around 800,000 tonnes of CO2 will be captured, compressed and liquefied in the Netherlands from early 2025 and transported by ship to the terminal for storage at 2,600 metres on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.
Northern Lights is the transport and storage part of the Longship project, funded 80% by the Norwegian Government.
Anders Opedal, CEO and President of Equinor said: “This is a major milestone for the development of carbon capture, transport and storage.
“With the first commercial agreement for transportation and storage of CO2, we open a value chain that is critical for the world to reach net zero by 2050. Together with our partners, we are building infrastructure to decarbonise industry and energy, securing industrial activity and jobs in a low carbon future.”
With the volumes from Yara, the first phase has reached full capacity and Northern Lights is now working to mature the second phase for final investment decision, increasing the total capacity to five to six million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director of Northern Lights said: “Yara is our first commercial customer, filling our available capacity in Northern Lights. With this we are establishing a market for transport and storage of CO2. From early 2025 we will be shipping the first tonnes of CO2 from the Netherlands to Norway. This will demonstrate that CCS is a climate tool for Europe,"
