Northern Lights moves forward with tank delivery

The Northern Lights joint venture (JV) has taken delivery of nine new CO2 storage tanks at its Øygarden site in Norway, marking a key step in the development of Phase 2 of the project.

The tanks were safely unloaded with support from Equinor, acting as the project’s technical service provider (TSP), and will contribute to more than doubling the terminal’s capacity to at least 5 million tonnes of CO2 per year.

“The tanks are here, which marks a milestone in scaling CCS to meet European decarbonisation targets. By increasing storage capacity, we commit to offering CO2 storage to a growing number of industrial customers across borders,” said Tim Heijn, Managing Director at Northern Lights.

Phase 2 is backed by the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA).

Northern Lights constitutes the transport, reception, and storage part of Norway’s Longship full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, initiated by the Norwegian government and designed to demonstrate large-scale CO2 capture, transport, and storage. Northern Lights focuses on the transport and storage aspects and will also transport and store CO2 from Norwegian emitters Hafslund Celsio in Oslo and Heidelberg Materials in Brevik.

In June, the Northern Lights JV received approval from the Norwegian Ministry of Energy for the expansion of the namesake CO2 transport and storage development.

The expansion in Phase 2 will increase the transport and storage capacity from 1.5 million to at least 5 million tons of CO2 per year. The project includes expanding the onshore terminal at Øygarden with a new jetty, constructing additional storage tanks, and increasing the pump capacity, while the number of offshore injection wells will be increased from two to four.

The official opening ceremony of the CO2 transport and storage facility in Øygarden, near Bergen, took place on September 26, 2024, signaling the facility’s readiness to receive and store CO2.

The PDO for the first phase was approved by the Ministry of Energy in February 2021, and operations are scheduled to start in Q3 2025. The second phase is expected to be completed for a start-up by the second half of 2028.

Equinor, acting as the TSP for the project, awarded Subsea7 and Aker Solutions with contracts for the expansion.