Norway, France to collaborate on CCS
Norway and France have signed a letter of intent to cooperate in developing and deploying carbon capture and storage (CCS), the two countries' governments announced on December 19.
Under the agreement, the two sides expressed interest in working together on cross-border CO2 transport and storage, sharing technical knowledge, advice, skills and expertise. They will consider and prepare a bilateral agreement on the subject.
In a statement, the two governments said they both valued the role of CCS in delivering on long-term climate goals under the Paris agreement, by decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors of industry.
Norwegian authorities estimate that the country's continental shelf could store over 80bn metric tons of CO2 – the equivalent of 1,000 years of national emissions. Oslo is therefore eager to use this capacity to assist other European countries decarbonise.
Norway's flagship CCS project is Northern Lights, a joint venture between Norwegian state oil company Equinor, France's TotalEnergies and Shell. The project will initially store up to 1.5mn metric tons/year of CO2, with its capacity set to grow to 5-6mn mt/yr under a second stage of development.
The Northern Lights partners signed the world's first commercial deal on CO2 transport and storage, with Norwegian fertiliser Yara at the end of August.