Norway Backs Carbon Capture, Storage Scheme

Norway's government presented to parliament the long-awaited NKr 25.1 ($2.7)bn carbon capture and storage (CCS) project September 21. The project is "the greatest climate project in Norwegian industry ever," said prime minister Erna Solberg. "The project will lead to emission cuts, and facilitate development of new technology and create new jobs."

CCS, where CO2 emissions are captured from industrial works and shipped into depleted gas fields, is among the new technological advances that policy-makers and industry say are needed to allow countries to achieve their carbon reduction targets. But the price of CO2, as shown by the European Union emissions trading scheme, has never been high enough to allow CCS to be profitable. Government support is therefore seen as key.

The Norwegian CCS projects involves downstream emitters, including a cement works and a waste incineration plant, coupled with the upstream development of a subsea saline aquifer for storage, near to but separate from the Troll field: the so-called Northern Lights project. It groups French Total, Norwegian Equinor and Anglo-Dutch Shell. 

Development of these projects will represent new activities and industrial opportunities for Norwegian and European industries, said Equinor’s technology and drilling head Anders Opedal, announcing the plan earlier this year.

“Shell is very pleased to learn that the Norwegian government now is proposing to move forward with the full scale CCS project,” said Shell's VP for Norway Marianne Olsnes in an emailed statement.

The executive vice-president at independent researcher Sintef Energy and president of the European Energy Research Alliance Nils Rokke said: "The proposal from the Norwegian government to support a full-scale CCS chain is highly commendable and will change the context of CCS in Europe and globally."

The Netherlands is considering backing the Porthos CCS project in the Rotterdam area, for which the tariff for CCS could be €50 ($60)/metric ton, according to independent analysis by consultancy Xodus September 18.