World’s First Commercial CO₂ ‘Graveyard’ Opens: What It Means for Sustainable Business Investments and Carbon Management Opportunities
OSLO: The world’s first commercial carbon storage service off the coast of Norway has successfully completed its inaugural injection of CO₂ into the North Sea seabed, announced the Northern Lights consortium on Monday.
The Northern Lights project, led by oil majors Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, focuses on transporting and permanently storing CO₂ captured from various industrial smokestacks across Europe. This initiative aims to prevent emissions from being released into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to global efforts to combat climate change.
“We have now safely injected and stored the very first CO₂ in the reservoir,” said Tim Heijn, managing director of Northern Lights. “Our ships, facilities, and wells are now fully operational.”
The process begins with capturing CO₂, which is then liquefied and shipped to the Oygarden terminal near Bergen on Norway’s western coast. From there, the CO₂ is transferred to large tanks before being injected via a 110-kilometre (68-mile) pipeline into the seabed, approximately 2.6 kilometres deep, for permanent storage.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology is recognized as a vital climate mitigation tool by both the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA), particularly for reducing emissions from hard-to-abate industries like cement and steel production.
The initial injection of CO₂ into the Northern Lights reservoir originated from Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik, southeastern Norway.
Despite its potential, CCS remains complex and expensive. Currently, without financial support, industries find it more economical to purchase pollution permits on the European carbon market than to invest in capturing, transporting, and storing CO₂.
To date, Northern Lights has secured three commercial contracts in Europe: one with a Yara ammonia plant in the Netherlands, another with two Orsted biofuel plants in Denmark, and a third with Stockholm Exergi’s thermal power plant in Sweden.
The project, largely funded by the Norwegian government, has an annual CO₂ storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes, with plans to expand this to five million tonnes by 2030. — AFP
تحلیل ویژه از عمانت | بازار عمان را کشف کنید
The successful launch of Norway’s Northern Lights carbon storage project signals a pivotal shift towards commercial-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS), highlighting a vital pathway for industries seeking to reduce emissions in hard-to-abate sectors. For businesses in Oman, especially in oil, cement, and heavy industries, this underscores an urgent opportunity to invest in CCS technologies to align with global climate commitments and future-proof operations. Smart investors and entrepreneurs should watch this space closely, as early adoption and partnerships in CCS could establish Oman as a regional leader in sustainable industrial practices, while also navigating the challenges of high upfront costs and the need for governmental support.
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