Norway gets five new applicants for CCS

The Norwegian government said December 16 that it received applications from five companies interested in carbon capture and storage (CCS) in its territorial waters of the North and Barents Seas.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in September invited applicants to submit their interest for acreage on the Norwegian continental shelf for the injection and storage of CO2. Five companies – Shell, Equinor, Horisont Energi, the Northern Lights joint venture and Var Energi – all submitted applications to play a role.  

“It is very gratifying that the companies are showing interest in being allocated an area for storing CO₂,” energy minister Marte Mjos Persen said. “We will immediately start processing these applications.”

Equinor, Var Energi and Horisont agreed last week to work together to develop the Polaris carbon transport and storage project, which could store as much as 100mn metric tons of CO₂. That is the equivalent of twice the level of annual greenhouse emissions from Norway.

Norway's former government unveiled an energy strategy in June, under which the country would continue exploring for and producing oil and gas for decades to come. But it also wants to embrace hydrogen and renewables as low-carbon energy sources, as well as CCS to decarbonise difficult-to-abate industries.

Norway already has a leadership position in CCS technology, with several major projects in the works. The government estimates that there is the capacity to store as much as 80bn mt of CO₂ in the Norwegian continental shelf.