‘First European-built’ offshore CO2 carrier set for launch

The first European-built offshore CO2 carrier for carbon capture and storage (CCS) is set to be launched on Wednesday, 14 May, according to Greensand Future.

Constructed at the Royal Niestern Sander shipyard in the Netherlands, the vessel is part of Project Greensand’s efforts to establish the EU’s first full-scale CCS value chain.

“Here she is. The first European built offshore CO2 carrier for carbon capture and storage – ready for launch tomorrow. Built at Royal Niestern Sander shipyard in the Netherlands she is a cornerstone in Greensand’s mission to deliver EU’s first full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain,” said Greensand Future in a social media post.

The launch is led by INEOS Energy and Royal Wagenborg, with the vessel aimed at supporting cross-border carbon transport and storage within Europe.

“Starting in 2040, the European Commission estimates that the EU will need to capture and permanently store approximately 250 million tonnes of CO2 each year to achieve climate neutrality by 2050,” Greensand Future noted.

The launch event will be livestreamed on Wednesday at 11:25 CEST.

The Greensand Future Project aims to store up to 400,000 tonnes of CO2 annually in the initial phase, with plans to increase capacity to up to 8 million tonnes annually by 2030.

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.

Project Greensand marked 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.

In December 2024, INEOS, the day-to-day operator, with its partners Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden (the Danish North Sea Fund) reached the final investment decision (FID) to invest in the Greensand Future Project, which is the first commercial phase of the Greensand project that will establish Denmark’s first CO2 storage site at the Nini field in the Danish North Sea.

In April, INEOS, on behalf of Project Greensand, signed a cross-border agreement with Öresundskraft Kraft & Värme to explore the storage of CO2 from Sweden at the Greensand offshore storage facility in the Danish North Sea, starting from 2028.