Equinor Invites Interest in CO2 Pipeline Work
Norway's Equinor has invited contractors to express their interest in a pre-qualification process for horizontal directional drilling work where a CO2 pipeline is due to make landfall, according to documents published on a European procurement website on November 11.
The pipeline will be built as part of the Equinor-led Northern Lights project, the carbon transport and storage part of Norway's Longship carbon capture and storage (CCS) scheme. It will transport liquefied CO2 from the Oygarden region to an offshore site for storage.
According to the documents, the deadline for expressions of interest is December 10, and selected companies will be invited to take part in a tender for a contract on January 25 2021. The contract itself is to be signed by July 2021, with the work due to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Equinor in October awarded a contract to Skanska for site preparation and the construction of jetty facilities for a CO2 receiving terminal in Oygarden. This terminal will receive CO2 from Norwegian industry via ships and then pump it into the pipeline.
Northern Lights' capacity will initially be 1.5mn metric tons/year, with more than half to be used to handle CO2 from a cement factory in Brevik and a waste incineration plant near Oslo. During a potential second stage its capacity will be expanded to 5mn mt/yr.