All twelve CO2 storage tanks for the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, a joint venture (JV) of energy majors Shell, Equinor and TotalEnergies, have been installed at the project’s CO2-receiving facilities in Øygarden, Norway.
Northern Lights JV revealed the construction milestone via social media on 2 June, some two months after the first temporary CO2 storage tank was lifted and placed .
Each tank is 32.5 metres tall and has the capacity to store nearly 700 tonnes of CO2 before it is injected into pipelines and permanently stored in the offshore reservoir.
The JV added that the construction work is on schedule and Northern Lights will be ready to handle CO2 emissions from Norway and Europe from 2024.
Just recently, the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) has completed an audit of the joint venture behind the Northern Lights JV and the follow-up of pipelines and subsea facilities in connection with the namesake project.
It was reported that the audit had not identified any non-conformities or improvement points.
Northern Lights is said to be the first industrial CCS project to develop an open and flexible infrastructure to safely store CO2 from industries across Europe. It is part of the full-scale Longship CCS project that entails the transportation, receipt and permanent storage of CO2 in a reservoir in the northern North Sea.
Captured and liquefied CO2 from European emitters will be loaded and delivered to the receiving terminal in Øygarden on board two LNG-powered, wind-assisted CO2 transportation ships .
The first phase is due to be completed in mid-2024 and will have the capacity to permanently store up to 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year, with the ambition to expand to over five million tons per year in a second development phase.
Read more about the Northern Lights project HERE .