Source: Energy & Management Powernews, 07 October 2022
Wintershall Dea and partner Cape Omega have been awarded a CO2 storage license in the Norwegian North Sea by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.
Gas and oil company Wintershall Dea and Norwegian energy infrastructure company Cape Omega ASA have been awarded a license by the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to inject carbon dioxide (CO2) under the Norwegian North Sea. A large terminal is currently being built in the municipality of Oygarden in western Norway for the delivery of CO2 by ship. From here, the carbon dioxide will then be transported under the seabed via pipelines and stored there. The process is called Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and is intended to ensure fewer greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The project, entitled "Northern Lights," is being implemented by subsidiary Wintershall Dea Norge AS. Wintershall Dea will be the operator of the "Luna" license with a 60% share. The area where the CO2 is to be stored is located 120 kilometers west of Bergen and has an estimated CO2 storage potential of up to five million tons per year. The license award shows that the company intends to expand its presence on the Norwegian continental shelf for decades to come, Wintershall Dea announced.
Storing greenhouse gases underground
"This award goes to two companies that have brought a good CO2 storage project to maturity. There is interest from the industry to further promote land on the Norwegian continental shelf," says Oil and Energy Minister Terje Aasland. "Capturing and storing larger amounts of CO2 is necessary for the world to meet its ambitious climate targets. In Norway, we have extensive experience with storing CO2 from the Sleipner and Snoehvit fields and know that it works," the minister explained.
The license is offered with a binding work program that ensures both rapid and efficient progress, or the return of the land if project development comes to a halt. Wintershall Dea sees the license as an important building block in developing the Norwegian continental shelf into a leading CO2 storage area in Europe. The company also plans to build the "CO2nnectNow" CO2 hub in Wilhelmshaven on the German North Sea coast to enable the storage and transport of carbon dioxide.
Cooperation with Equinor
In August, Wintershall Dea signed a cooperation agreement with Equinor to drive the development of a CCS value chain linking continental European CO2 emitters with offshore storage sites on the Norwegian continental shelf. CCS is crucial to the economic and environmental viability of heavy industry, which produces key products such as cement, steel and chemicals in industrial sectors that employ millions of Europeans, the company said.
Wintershall Dea said the award of the Luna license is an important milestone in the development of a comprehensive CCS value chain linking European heavy industry to the North Sea basin, where carbon emissions can be stored. Germany is the largest CO2 emitter in Europe, while Norway has the largest storage potential for CCS.
Cape Omega as infrastructure partner
"With our subsea expertise and our ambition to contribute to European climate targets, we are ideally placed to create the infrastructure needed in Norway to make it a center for European carbon storage," said Hugo Dijkgraaf, chief technical officer at Wintershall Dea.
The license is very important for Cape Omega, explained CEO Gisle Eriksen. It illustrates the company's strategy to provide infrastructure for the energy transition, he said. Cape Omega works closely with Wintershall Dea and shares the same ambitions and goals to contribute to reducing the carbon footprint in Europe, he added. The announcement of the areas now awarded was made on April 8, 2022. The deadline for applications was June 1, 2022.
Further information and the CCS- work program are available online.
Author: Susanne Harmsen
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