
Together with partners Shell and Equinor, TotalEnergies has announced the completion of the Northern Lights project.
The project is a joint venture for permanently storing carbon dioxide that has been captured. TotalEnergies, which also makes the Total coolant range, says the project is the first commercial one in the world for transporting and storing carbon dioxide.
The Norwegian Government provided support for the project’s first phase, which is capable of transporting and storing 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. This capacity has already been booked by European customers.
A second phase is at the study stage, with this potentially increasing the annual storage capacity to over 5 million tons.
The project comprises a terminal for receiving shipments of carbon dioxide, a 62-mile pipeline under the sea for transporting it for storage offshore, and the facilities for injecting it into a reservoir more than a mile and a half under the seabed for permanent storage.
TotalEnergies’ senior vice president for the carbon neutrality business, Arnaud Le Foll, said about the project:
“We are proud to celebrate today the commissioning of the Northern Lights facilities. It has been a long journey since our partnership with the Norwegian State, Equinor and Shell was established in 2017. This major milestone signals the readiness of the infrastructure to store CO2.”
He added that the partners were anticipating receiving the first shipments of carbon dioxide from industries with hard-to-abate emissions next year. He said Northern Lights would contribute greatly to decarbonising industry in Europe.