The Operator of Northern Lights is a joint venture between Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell. Northern Lights aims to have capacity to store 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year from mid-2024. The facility has potential to grow.
Northern Lights is expected to welcome ships with liquid CO2 from heavy industry emitters to an onshore terminal on the Norwegian west coast. From there, the liquified CO2 will be transported by pipeline to an offshore storage location subsea in the North Sea, for permanent storage.
Between 2016 – 2020, both concept and Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies were carried out. Gassnova, serving as the coordinating body and representing the Norwegian state, oversaw the following studies:
- CO2 capture at the Heidelberg Materials (formerly Norcem) cement factory in Brevik
- CO2 capture at the waste-to-energy plant Hafslund Oslo Celsio in Oslo
- A comprehensive transport and storage solution, overseen by Northern Lights JV DA.
In May 2020, the parties delivered a development study to the government proposing how the transportation and storage of CO2 would be executed. Drilling of a well at the Utsira storage site was completed in March 2020 with positive results indicating that the area is suitable for CO2 storage.
KEY BENEFITS DELIVERED
AGR’s role throughout the feasibility study was to provide expertise to state owned Gassnova within geoscience, reservoir and drilling disciplines, in addition to facilities and cost engineering. As a result, the client was empowered with independent assessment and carbon storage capacity modelling allowing Gassnova to make informed decisions and best utilise state owned assets.
CAPABILITIES AND SOLUTIONS AGR DELIVERED
- Evaluation of resources potential
- Modelling of CO2 storage capacity
- Drilling engineering
- Geoscience, reservoir engineering
- Industry and subject matter expertise with nearly 400 years of experience combined
- Project excellence