Norway’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy is inviting applications for an area on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) that would be used for CO2 injection and storage.
The area encompasses defined blocks in the North Sea.
“Today’s announcement of land for the storage of CO2 is new evidence of the great industrial interest in storing CO2 in Norway. The government wants to facilitate such storage to become a new commercial industry in Norway,” said Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Aasland .
“The most important thing we can do is create competition to offer attractive storage locations. Then we must allocate land for further exploration of possible storage locations.”
The deadline for submitting applications is 3 January 2023 at 12:00 local time.
So far, four storage permits have been awarded on the Norwegian continental shelf, three in the North Sea and one in the Barents Sea.
Permit EL 001 in the North Sea was awarded to Northern Lights in 2019 and, this April, two more permits were allocated , one in the North Sea and one in the Barents Sea.
The North Sea one was awarded to Equinor, while the license in the Barents Sea was offered to a group consisting of Equinor, Horisont Energi, and Vår Energi.
In October, Wintershall Dea Norge and CapeOmega were selected for an exploration permit for CO2 storage in the North Sea.