Denmark grants its first-ever approval for CO2 storage facility

December 18, 2025, by Nadja Skopljak

Denmark has issued its first-ever approval for a full-scale CO2 storage facility, clearing the Greensand Future project to store CO2 in the Nini West field in the North Sea.

The Danish Energy Agency reported today, December 18, that the licensees behind Greensand Future, INEOS E&P, Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden (the Danish North Sea Fund), are now allowed to store CO2 in the Nini West field located approximately 240 kilometers northwest of Esbjerg.

The permit is for the storage of up to 2.4 million tons of CO2 for a period of 30 years.

“It is a significant milestone that we now have the first CO2 storage facility in Denmark. Storage facilities are a crucial part of the value chain for CO2 capture and storage. We only benefit the climate when the CO2 is stored and removed from the atmosphere,” said Peter Christian Baggesgaard Hansen, Deputy Director General of the Danish Energy Agency.

“Therefore, the permit for the first CO2 storage facility in Denmark is a very important step towards establishing a market for CCS and thus creating the conditions for reaping the major climate benefits that CO2 capture and storage can contribute to.”

In December 2022, Project Greensand was granted an exploration permit for the injection and storage of up to 15,000 tons of CO2 in Nini West over a four-month period. This was followed by a world first on March 8, 2023, with the first-ever injection of CO2 in the North Sea, demonstrating that captured CO2 can be transported across borders and stored offshore. A couple of months later, the classification society DNV verified the safety of all aspects of the project’s CO2 storage.

On December 9, 2024, INEOS, the day-to-day operator, and partners reached the final investment decision (FID) to invest in the Greensand Future Project, which is the first commercial phase of the Greensand project.

The CO2 in the first phase of Greensand Future will be captured and liquified at Danish biomethane production plants, transported to the port of Esbjerg, and then shipped by Royal Wagenborg to the Nini West reservoir to be stored 1,800 meters below the seabed.

Storage is expected to be operational by the middle of next year.