The Northern Lights project, the carbon capture and storage (CCS) joint venture between Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, has successfully injected its first volumes of CO2 into a subsea reservoir in the Norwegian North Sea.
The captured CO2 was transported from Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik to the project’s onshore terminal at Øygarden. It was then transferred via a 100-kilometre pipeline and injected 2,600 metres beneath the seabed into the Aurora storage formation.
Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, described the event as ‘a major milestone’ that ‘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’.
Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV, commented: ‘We now injected and stored the very first CO2 safely in the reservoir. Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation. We are excited to continue building additional capacity following the positive investment decision for the second phase.’
The first phase of the project has an annual storage capacity of 1.5mn tonnes. This initial allocation is already fully contracted by industrial emitters such as Heidelberg Materials and Hafslund Celsio in Norway, Yara in the Netherlands, Ørsted in Denmark and Stockholm Exergi in Sweden. Shipments from Denmark and the Netherlands are expected to begin in 2026.
For these initial operations, Northern Lights has taken delivery of two 7,500-cbm LCO2 carriers, Northern Pioneer and Northern Pathfinder. Two more vessels are under construction in China, while a tender has been launched for larger ships to serve a planned expansion.
In March, the partners approved a second-phase expansion that will lift capacity to at least 5mn tonnes annually from 2028. The expansion, supported by Connecting Europe Facility funding, will add new onshore tanks, pumps, jetty infrastructure, injection wells and additional LCO2 carriers. It is underpinned by a long-term contract with Stockholm Exergi, which has committed up to 900,000 tonnes annually from its bioenergy facility in Sweden.
Arnaud Le Foll, Senior Vice President at TotalEnergies, said, ‘With the start of operations of Northern Lights, we are entering a new phase for the [CCS] industry in Europe. This industry now moves to reality, offering hard-to-abate sectors a credible and tangible way to reduce CO2 emissions.’
Northern Lights’ start of operations will be of interest to governments and wider industry as policymakers seek scalable solutions to decarbonise hard-to-abate sectors, such as cement, steel and chemicals. The expansion of dedicated LCO2 carriers and terminal infrastructure also points to the growing maritime CO2 transportation market, which will play a key enabling role in Europe’s industrial decarbonisation strategy.
