Award of Exploitation Permit for CO2 Storage
The authorities have granted Equinor a permit to exploit an area for CO2 storage on the Norwegian Shelf. In the Northern Lights project, Equinor and partners Shell and Total will carry out a feasibility study 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. The Troll field lies in the northern part of the North Sea, around 65km west of Kollsnes, near Bergen.“This is the first time the authorities award an exploitation permit for injection and storage of CO2, and this is an important project for initiating carbon capture and storage (CCS) both nationally and internationally,” says Eva Halland, the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate’s coordinator for CO2 storage. The authorities announced the relevant area on 5 July 2018. State Secretary Ingvil Smines Tybring-Gjedde (Progress Party) said then that the announcement is a specific follow-up of the Government’s ambitions for full-scale CCS in Norway, and is important regarding 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. Equinor and its partners in the Northern Lights project were the only applicants when the deadline expired.