The Danish subsidiary of France’s energy giant TotalEnergies has signed a farm-down agreement with CarbonVault, an affiliate of the German cement producer SCHWENK, for a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the Danish sector of the North Sea.
Once the divestment of TotalEnergies E&P Denmark’s 35% interest in the Bifrost CCS project to CarbonVault is completed, the French major will hold a 45% interest and remain the operator, paired with Nordsøfonden ‘s 20% stake. The completion is subject to customary conditions, including regulatory approvals.
“We look forward to working with our new partner to ensure the successful deployment of the Bifrost Project, a cornerstone of Denmark’s national ambition to establish a European hub for CO2 storage,” said Arnaud Le Foll , Senior Vice-President New Business – Carbon Neutrality at TotalEnergies.
Project Bifrost is described as a cross-border initiative to develop infrastructure linking European industrial hubs with underground CO2 storage in the Danish North Sea. It aims to store up to 335 million metric tons of CO2 over 35 years.
Comprising two CO2 offshore storage licenses, the project is located approximately 200 kilometers west of the Danish coast and covers an area of 2,118 square kilometers. The acreage includes the Harald gas fields, operated by TotalEnergies, as well as a saline aquifer area named Dagny.
The Harald gas fields, comprising Harald West and Harald East , are situated on the far western edge of the Danish North Sea. Discovered in the 1980s, these two gas reservoirs have been in production since 1997.
Once the gas production at the fields ends, CO2 is planned to be injected into the sites for storage at a depth of around 3,400 meters for Harald West and 2,700 meters for Harald East.
Existing oil and gas infrastructure, as well as the offshore gas transportation system, are envisaged to be repurposed when possible. As stated on the project website, this is considered a sustainable design element from both financial and ecological perspectives.
This divestment comes on the heels of another one announced by the French giant. Yesterday, the company disclosed having signed a deal to divest its non-operated interests in the West Ekofisk and Albuskjell fields to Vår Energi and in the Tommeliten Gamma field to ORLEN Upstream Norway.
According to Jean-Luc Guiziou , Senior Vice President Europe for Exploration & Production at TotalEnergies, this forms part of the company’s efforts to high-grade its upstream portfolio by seizing value-accretive divestment opportunities.