Northern Lights, one of the world’s first cross-border CO2 transport and storage facilities, has been completed and is ready to receive and store CO2. Comprising a terminal to receive CO2 cargos, a 100 km subsea pipeline for CO2 transportation to the offshore storage location and subsea injection facilities, it will provide permanent CO2 storage some 2.6km below the seabed. Delivering CO2 transport and storage as a service, Northern Lights enables mitigation of industrial emissions that cannot be avoided and accelerates the decarbonisation of European industry. The project is part of a Norwegian full-scale CCS project named Longship, which aims to include capture of CO2 from industrial sources, and ship it in liquid form to the new terminal in Øygarden.

The first phase capacity of 1.5 MtCO2/y is already fully booked, with the joint venture owners continuing to work on plans to increase the transport and storage capacity to more than 5 MtCO2/y in a second phase.

The Northern Lights project, first reported on by IFRF back in 2020, is a joint venture between Equinor, and IFRF members Shell and TotalEnergies. It was officially opened on 26 September 2024 by the Norwegian minister of Energy, Terje Aasland, saying: “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”.