Norway launches world’s first commercial carbon storage vault
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 at factory smokestacks in Europe and inject them into geological reservoirs under the seabed.
The aim is to prevent the emissions from being released into the atmosphere, and thereby help halt climate change.
On the island of Oygarden, a key milestone was marked on Thursday with the inauguration of a terminal built on the shores of the North Sea, its shiny storage tanks rising up against the sky.
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.
The facility, a joint venture grouping oil giants Equinor of Norway, Anglo-Dutch Shell and TotalEnergies of France, is expected to bury its first CO2 deliveries in 2025.
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.
Prohibitive cost
Read more on RFI English
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