A semi-submersible drilling rig owned by Transocean has been chosen to drill one carbon injection well for the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
The rig is under contract with Equinor until 2024 and will also drill a sidetrack for another carbon injection well that was started in early 2020.
The Vice president of human resources, sustainability, and communications of Transocean, Janelle Daniel, commented that this contract is an excellent example of how the company can further leverage its rigs and core competencies, this time in support of renewable and alternative energy projects in offshore markets across the globe.
The Northern Lights CCS project is the transport and storage component of the Norwegian government’s Longship project. It includes the capture of CO2 from industrial sources in the Oslo region of Norway and transporting it by ships as a liquid to an onshore terminal on Norway’s west coast. After that, the emissions will be transported by pipeline to a subsea reservoir below the North Sea for permanent storage.
Relevant: Northern Lights JV Orders World’s First CO2 Carrier Ships
The project is a joint venture created by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies. It aims to mitigate emissions and remove them from the atmosphere by creating the first cross-border, open-source CO2 transport and storage infrastructure network in Europe.
Phase 1 of the project includes storing up to 1.5 million tons of CO2 per year from one or two industrial sites.
The work advancing on the completion of the Northern Lights project is signaling the goal of bringing open-source carbon capture and storage is coming to reality. It is critical for the next few decades that the world captures and sequesters as much CO2 as possible for global warming to be tamed under control.
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