The Northern Lights project has officially commenced operations, with the first volumes of CO2 injected and securely stored 2,600 meters (1.6 miles) beneath the North Sea seabed.
The facility, the world’s first open-access CO2 transport and storage network for third parties, marks a milestone in Europe’s efforts to cut industrial greenhouse gas emissions.
CO2 captured at Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik is shipped to Northern Lights’ Øygarden facility, offloaded, and then transported via a 100-kilometer pipeline before being injected into the Aurora reservoir.
The joint venture is equally owned by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, with Equinor overseeing both construction and operations.
“Lifting new value chains like CO2 capture, transport and storage requires collaboration and effort across the value chain – from governments, industry and customers. With Northern Lights in operation, we have proven that this is possible,” said Irene Rummelhoff, Executive Vice President of MMP at Equinor.
“Now, we look forward to leading safe and efficient operations on behalf of the Northern Lights partnership and use this as a stepping stone for the further development of CCS in Europe”
Expansion Already Underway
Phase 1 of Northern Lights, now complete, offers a storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, which is fully booked. In March, the project partners approved Phase 2, which will expand annual capacity to at least 5 million tonnes.
The expansion, supported by Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy funding, will add onshore storage tanks, a new jetty, and more injection wells. Nine new storage tanks were delivered to Øygarden this summer as part of the buildout.
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Equinor, already one of the world’s largest CCS developers, aims to scale its total storage capacity to 30–50 million tonnes annually by 2035, leveraging projects in both Europe and the U.S. to meet growing demand for large-scale decarbonization.
“With CO2 safely stored below the seabed, we mark a major milestone. This demonstrates the viability of carbon capture, transport and storage as a scalable industry,” says CEO of Equinor, Anders Opedal.
“With the support from the Norwegian government and in close collaboration with our partners, we have successfully transformed this project from concept to reality.”
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