- 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 to be captured annually.
- The company plans to capture 5 – 6 million CO2 by 2026.
The Norwegian company, Equinor, has received awarded licenses for two underground CO2 storage sites that are to be located on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). This step has been described as an “important building block” in Norway’s CO2 transport and storage infrastructure (CCS) goals.
The country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy revealed that the awards had been accorded, with Equinor as the operator. The two sites, known as “Smeaheia,” located in the North Sea, and “Polaris” in the Barents Sea, are to serve as storage sites for the captured CO2 and will help Norway reduce its yearly emissions.
Contained in Equinor’s bid for the award was a plan for 20 million tonnes of yearly CO2 storage capacity at the site in Smeaheia. This figure depicts a significant increase in commercial CO2 storage capacity in Norway. The CO2 storage facility in the Longship Project, Northern Lights, plans 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 injection in a year for the first phase of the project, which will be available from 2024. The company plans to scale up the injection capacity to 5-6 million tonnes per year from around 2026.
Equinor has the ambition to develop value chains for CO2 transport and storage with an annual capacity of 15-30 million tonnes of CO2 within 2035.