Equinor’s Northern Lights CO2 Transport, Storage Facility Opens in Norway

The Norwegian Minister of Energy officially opened the Northern Lights CO₂ transport and storage facility in Øygarden, near Bergen, Norway. The Northern Lights facility is a joint venture between Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies. With the opening, Equinor’s cross-border facility is ready to receive and store CO₂. Large-scale carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCS) will play a role in the energy transition as it addresses large, hard-to-abate industrial emitters that require decarbonization.

“The completion of the Northern Lights facility marks an important milestone for the global development of a business model for carbon capture, transport, and storage,” said Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor. “It opens a value chain for decarbonization of European industry and energy and shows the role we and our partners take in developing low carbon solutions in the energy transition.”

The Northern Lights facility is part of the Norwegian full-scale CCS project named “Longship”. The full-scale endeavor includes CO₂ capture from industrial sources and liquid CO₂ shipping to the Øygarden terminal. Liquefied CO₂ will then be transported via pipeline to an offshore storage location below the North Sea for safe and permanent storage. The first phase capacity of 1.5 million tons of CO₂ per year is fully booked, and the joint venture owners are working to further increase the transport and storage capacity.

Northern Lights CCS facilities; Image Credits: Northern Lights

“This project demonstrates what can be achieved when authorities and industry are working towards the same goal and co-invest to reduce risks,” said Opedal. “Equinor has several CO₂ transport and storage developments in our portfolio as operator and partner. The established Northern Lights value chain and experience from the project will be valuable in maturing and scaling up future CCS projects.”

The Northern Lights project includes:

• A receiving terminal, injection pipeline, and subsea installations
• 7.5 billion NOK budget
• Captured and liquefied CO₂ from customer sites will be transported by ship to the onshore receiving terminal
• A reservoir 2,600 meters under the seabed in the North Sea

Other Equinor News

In April 2024, MTU Power signed a five-year contract extension with Equinor ASA for MRO work on its LM-series industrial gas turbines. MTU Power will service Equinor’s fleet of GE Vernova Gas Power LM2500 and LM6000 industrial gas turbines until 2028. The MRO contract was initially signed in 2015 and, in addition to turbine servicing, it also entails offshore field service support, piece part repairs, and in-country level 2 maintenance, including module swaps and smaller work scopes.

MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH is the contract partner and will perform the MRO work at its facility in Ludwigsfelde, south of Berlin. MTU Power will also offer technical support to expand Equinor’s footprint in Brazil, where it has been operating a level 2 industrial gas turbine service center since 2012.

In February, Equinor was granted planning permission by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council for its 600 MW low-carbon hydrogen production plant equipped with carbon capture, which will help to establish the Humber estuary as an international hub for low-carbon hydrogen and reduce carbon emissions. The permission was granted as the project prepares for a potential application into the U.K.’s Cluster Sequencing Track-1 Expansion process.