Northern Lights’ fleet expansion quest bringing to life four new CO2 vessels

January 29, 2026, by Melisa Cavcic

Northern Lights, a joint venture (JV) encompassing three European oil majors: Shell, Equinor, and TotalEnergies, has taken steps to enrich its fleet with four more carbon dioxide (CO2) vessels through charter deals with Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) and a consortium between Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) and MISC.

As part of its fleet expansion, Northern Lights JV has handed out a charter agreement to a consortium of K Line and MISC for one new liquid CO2 transport vessel, with a second one to be awarded to the same consortium in April 2026. The firm also gave two charter deals to Mitsui O.S.K. Lines for two new CO2 transport ships.

Tim Heijn, Managing Director at Northern Lights, commented: “We are pleased to significantly grow our transport capacity by adding vessels to our existing Northern Lights fleet. Northern Lights is set up to offer transport and storage services to industrial emitters in Europe looking to decarbonise. With an expanded fleet, we will be able to deliver on our commitments to our customers. It will also enable us to optimise operations and increase flexibility.

“We are happy to continue working with our existing partners on shipping and to bring in new partners. This demonstrates a further maturation of the market, increasing the number of participants. Together we are pioneers in building the first dedicated CO2 shipping fleet. This experience will benefit Northern Lights, our customers and the CCS industry for the years to come.”

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The three vessels for which awards have been disclosed will each have a 12,000 cubic meter cargo capacity and be owned by the shipping companies: K Line, MISC, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. These ships will be built by Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Co. (DSOC) and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI).

The newbuilds are to be delivered for start-up of charter services to Northern Lights in the period from second half of 2028 to first half of 2029. The long-term time charter agreements are for cross-border transport of CO2 from commercial customers in Europe.

The JV claims that its increased transport capacity aligns with signed customer agreements and the expansion project to boost the transport and storage capacity to more than 5 million tonnes CO2 per year. The long-term deals follow a global tender process.

Northern Lights has taken delivery of three vessels since late 2024, including Northern Pioneer, Northern Pathfinder, and Northern Phoenix, which are three newbuilt 7,500 cubic meter capacity sister ships as part of the phase 1 development in the Norwegian government’s Longship project and following agreements with first commercial customers.

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These three vessels are managed by K Line. A fourth identical ship is under completion and will be delivered in 2026. This vessel will be owned and operated by Bernhard Schulte, a part of the Schulte Group. The four sister ships have been built and delivered by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. (DSIC) and Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Co. (DSOC).

Northern Lights, which offers CO2 transport and storage as a service, started first injection of liquid C02 for permanent storage in August 2025. The liquefied CO2 from capture sites is shipped to an onshore receiving terminal in western Norway, before being transported by pipeline for permanent storage in a reservoir 2,600 meters under the seabed.

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The project will transport and store CO2 from two Norwegian industries: Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik and the Hafslund Celsio’ waste-to-energy plant in Oslo. The Northern Lights JV has signed commercial agreements with Yara in the Netherlands, Ørsted in Denmark, and Stockholm Exergi in Sweden.