Wintershall Dea joins others in Danish hub project

German gas company Wintershall Dea said December 1 it would join with others in an agreement to “mature and pursue” the Greenport Scandinavia project, a CO₂ hub near Hirtshals on the Danish North Sea coast.

Among other things, the CO₂ hub is to be connected to Project Greensand, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in which Wintershall Dea is a key player.

“Wintershall Dea is already an important partner for the CO₂-transport infrastructure and underground storage of CO₂ in the North Sea,” said Hugo Dijkgraaf, Wintershall’s chief technology officer. “By participating in Greenport Scandinavia, we are showing that we are driving decarbonisation forward. We are entering into selected partnerships like this one as well as applying for CCS licences.”

Greenport Scandinavia is meant to serve as a collection point for CO₂ generated during the production of biogas in regional plants. The CO₂ will then be transported by ship to Project Greensand for permanent sequestration in a depleted oil reservoir. Greenport Scandinavia anticipates collecting and sequestering about 1.5mn metric tons/year of CO₂, some of which will come from countries on the Baltic Sea.

The first test injections of CO₂ at Project Greensand are expected early next year. Starting in 2030, the project’s annual storage potential is estimated at between 4mn and 8mn mt.

Greenport Scandinavia and Project Greensand will inform Wintershall’s other CCS investments in northern Europe, including its development of a CO₂ hub in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, where the planned CO₂nnectNow project will serve as a collection point for up to 10mn mt/yr of CO₂ emissions along the German North Sea coast for transport to offshore sequestration sites in the North Sea.