World’s first third-party CO2 storage facility begins operating as first injection takes place

August 25, 2025, by Nadja Skopljak

Joint venture partners Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies have injected and stored the first CO2 volumes at the Northern Lights CO2 project in the Norwegian North Sea, marking the start of operations of what is said to be the world’s first third-party CO2 transport and storage facility.

The first CO2 volumes were transported by vessel from Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik, Norway, to Northern Lights’ facilities in Øygarden, then injected and stored in the Aurora reservoir 2,600 meters under the North Sea seabed.

The first injection of CO2 completes phase 1 of the development, which has a total capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year (mtpa). The capacity of this phase is fully booked.

“We have reached an exciting milestone: We now injected and stored the very first CO₂ safely in the reservoir. Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation,” said Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV. “We are excited to continue building additional capacity following the positive investment decision for the second phase.”

Northern Lights will transport and store CO2 from Norway during the remainder of 2025, with CO2 volumes from Denmark and the Netherlands expected to be added in 2026. 

The Northern Lights Joint Venture is equally owned by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies. Equinor, as the Technical Service Provider (TSP), has been responsible for the construction of the Øygarden facility and the offshore facilities and will have operational responsibility for the CO2 plant.

The project’s first phase is part of Longship, the Norwegian Government’s full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. The government is covering approximately 80% of the cost for phase 1.

Norway: Northern Lights approved for CO2 storage expansion

Carbon Capture Usage & Storage

In March, the partners made the final investment decision (FID) for phase 2, which will increase transport and storage capacity to a minimum of 5 mtpa, following the signing of a commercial agreement with Stockholm Exergi to transport and store up to 900,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.

The expansion, enabled by a €131 million grant from the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF Energy) funding scheme, leverages existing infrastructure and includes additional onshore storage tanks, pumps, a new jetty, additional injection wells, and more CO2 transport ships. This development with Equinor as TSP is well underway, with the delivery of nine new CO2 storage tanks at the Øygarden site this summer.

“With CO2 safely stored below the seabed, we mark a major milestone. This demonstrates the viability of carbon capture, transport and storage as a scalable industry. With the support from the Norwegian government and in close collaboration with our partners, we have successfully transformed this project from concept to reality,” said CEO of Equinor Anders Opedal.