Northern Lights has just issued the first storage certificates for CO₂ permanently stored in the Aurora reservoir.

Northern Lights is part of Longship, the Norwegian Government’s full-scale carbon capture and storage project, and will transport and store CO₂ from Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik and the Hafslund Celsio’ waste-to-energy plant in Oslo.

In August, Northern Lights joint venture partners TotalEnergies, Equinor, and Shell announced the successful transport of the first CO₂ volumes from Brevik. These were injected 2,600 meters below the seabed into the Aurora reservoir, 100km off the coast of Western Norway.

The certificates document the quantities of CO₂ transported and stored.

Says Tim Heijn, Northern Lights Managing Director, “Credible carbon accounting is essential to the integrity of the emerging CCS industry. It includes a precise tracking of CO₂ volumes transported and stored, as well as emissions arising across the value chain. The CO₂ accounting and measurement procedures are described in Northern Lights’ Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV). Data is recorded in our digital system, which is designed as a ledger for all certificates. We are proud to be able to issue the first storage certificates for our customers.”

Each Northern Lights JV certificate is issued to a specific CO₂ ship cargo and details the quantity of CO₂ stored, with a breakdown of its share of relevant lifecycle emissions – from initial loading to the issuance of storage certificates, which also include and account for emissions from the facilities and operations. This process ensures that the certificate serves as transparent and verifiable proof of emission storage.