TotalEnergies, Equinor and Shell have begun operations at the world’s first commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, after shipping CO₂ from a Norwegian cement plant for permanent storage beneath the North Sea.
The initial cargo came from Heidelberg Materials’ factory in Brevik and was carried by vessel to the Northern Lights terminal at Øygarden, before being injected 2,600 metres below the seabed, 100 km off Norway’s coast.
The project – the first of its kind – promises to give heavy industry a lifeline as Europe races to hit net zero targets. Its first phase can store 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ a year, and is already fully booked.
A second phase, signed off in March, will expand capacity to more than 5 million tonnes annually from 2028, creating one of the world’s most advanced CCS hubs.
Arnaud Le Foll, Senior Vice-President for Carbon Neutrality at TotalEnergies, said: “With the start of operations of Northern Lights, we are entering a new phase for the CCS industry in Europe.
"This industry now moves to reality, offering hard-to-abate sectors a credible and tangible way to reduce CO2 emissions,”
Backed equally by TotalEnergies, Equinor and Shell, Northern Lights is a blueprint for cross-border CO₂ transport and storage.
Liquefied CO₂ is shipped to Norway, piped offshore and locked away under the seabed – a model TotalEnergies is now replicating in the UK, US, the Netherlands and Denmark.
FTSE 100
The UK's flagship share index, the FTSE 100, was down 56-points at 9,263 shortly after opening this morning.
Brent crude oil futures were down 0.43% at $67.31 a barrel.
Companies reporting today
- Bunzl - half-year results
- Prudential - Half-year results