The Northern Lights carbon transport and storage project has crossed a major threshold after its developers – Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies – issued the first certificates verifying permanent CO2 storage at the offshore Aurora reservoir.
The documentation confirms that captured carbon has been shipped, piped and injected into a geological formation 2,600 meters (8530 feet) beneath the North Sea, establishing a verified chain of custody for stored emissions.
The certificates mark the first time Northern Lights has formally demonstrated that its end-to-end infrastructure is operating as designed. They track the volumes moved by vessel and subsea pipeline before injection, offering independent proof of what has been sequestered – an important requirement for future commercial contracts and regulatory compliance.
Phase 1 Completion Sets Stage for Expansion
Northern Lights achieved initial injection in August 2025, completing phase one and proving that the full CCS chain, from capture through storage, functions at operational scale.
Momentum had been building earlier in the year: in March, the partnership signed a major commercial agreement that triggered internal approval for a phase-two expansion, increasing planned transport and storage capacity from 1.5 million tons per year to at least 5 million tons.
Relevant: Technip Energies To Deliver Fully Electric CO2 Loading Arms For Northern Lights
Norway’s Ministry of Energy granted final regulatory clearance in June 2025, opening the door for additional infrastructure such as onshore storage tanks, a jetty and new offshore wells.
SLB OneSubsea secured the EPC contract for the next set of subsea injection systems, with early components expected to arrive in 2026.
With certified storage now established, Northern Lights is positioned to become one of Europe’s most significant open-access CO2 storage networks, offering industrial emitters a scalable decarbonization pathway.
Read more: Norway Expands Northern Lights Carbon Storage Capacity To 5M Tons
