TotalEnergies and its partners, Equinor and Shell, have announced the completion of the CO₂ receiving and storage facilities of Northern Lights Joint-Venture in Norway.

Northern Lights is now ready to receive and permanently store CO₂ from European industries, with first CO₂ injection expected in 2025, as TotalEnergies said.

The facilities located in a terminal that will receive CO₂ cargos, a 100 km subsea pipeline for CO₂ transportation to the offshore storage location, and subsea injection facilities for safe and permanent CO₂ storage is in a reservoir 2,600 meters below the seabed.

TotalEnergies noted that developing CO₂ transportation and storage services is one of the necessary levers to reduce emissions and a realistic decarbonization solution for European industry.

Northern Lights, the world’s first commercial CO₂ transportation and storage project, was supported by the Norwegian government. Its first phase has a capacity of 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year (Mt CO₂/y) which has been fully booked by customers in Norway and Continental Europe.

Currently, studies are under way for a capacity expansion to more than 5 Mt CO₂/y in a second phase.

“Today’s ceremony marks a significant milestone – one that fills us with great pride and hope for the future. This is a proud moment not just for Northern Lights as a company, but for Norway and for the advancement of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) worldwide”, said Terje Aasland, Norwegian Minister of Energy.

In the same context, Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV said: “Today we achieved an important milestone on our journey to demonstrate CCS as a viable option to help achieve climate goals. The whole world is looking to Norway to learn about CCS. Since construction started, we have welcomed more than 10,000 visitors from more than 50 countries.

For his part, Arnaud Le Foll, Senior VP New Business – Carbon Neutrality at TotalEnergies said: “We are proud to celebrate today the commissioning of the Northern Lights facilities. It has been a long journey since our partnership with the Norwegian State, Equinor and Shell was established in 2017. This major milestone signals the readiness of the infrastructure to store CO_2, and we look forward to receiving the first volumes from hard-to-abate emitters in 2025. This will bring a strong contribution to the decarbonization of European industry.”

Grete Tveit, Senior VP of Low Carbon Solutions at Equinor also said: “We are proud that Northern Lights, as part of the Longship value chain, has now been completed and is ready to receive CO₂. It is an important milestone in the work of establishing a Carbon Capture and Storage value-chain in Europe.”

Moreover, Anna Mascolo, Executive VP at Shell Low Carbon Solutions said: “Carbon capture and storage has a vital role to play in helping society achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Alongside efforts to avoid and reduce emissions, CCS will be an essential tool in supporting our customers on their decarbonization journeys, particularly in those industries that are harder to decarbonize. I am delighted that the Northern Lights facilities are now ready to receive CO₂ from industrial sites across Europe, for Shell this is an important part of our integrated offer to our customers.”