The authorities have granted Equinor a permit to exploit an area for storage of CO2 on the Norwegian Shelf. 

In the Northern Lights project, Equinor and partners Shell and Total, will carry out preliminary engineering for a CO2 storage facility. This is part of a full-scale pilot project for CO2 capture and storage.

The awarded area is located south of the Troll field in the North Sea.

“This is the first time the authorities award an exploitation permit for injection and storage of CO2, and this is an important project to get started on carbon capture and storage (CCS) both in a national and international perspective,” says Eva Halland, coordinator for CO2 storage in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate.

The authorities announced the relevant area on 5 July. State Secretary Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde (Progress Party) said then that the announcement is a concrete follow-up of the Government’s ambitions as regards full-scale CCS in Norway, and an important part of the work on the storage part of the equation.

The ambition is to realise a cost-effective solution for full-scale CCS in Norway, assuming that this yields technology development in an international perspective, cf. Prop. 85 S (2017-2018).

Equinor and its partners in the Northern Lights project were the only applicants when the deadline expired.