Norway to invest $1.8 Billion in world's first full-scale CCS chain

Norway said it would finance 16.8 billion crowns ($1.83 billion) out of an estimated total investment of 25.1 billion crowns for what could be the world's first full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.

CCS has been cited by governments, energy companies and industry as an integral part of the plan to reduce emissions and move to a lower-carbon future, but development has been slow and there are few commercial projects in existence in the world.

Under the plan, the Norwegian government would finance Northern Lights, a joint venture between European oil majors Equinor, Shell and Total that would transport and bury the captured emissions in an offshore geological formation in the North Sea. Oslo would also fund a carbon capture project at a cement factory in southern Norway operated by Germany's Heidelberg Cement.

The government would also finance a facility at a waste incineration plant in Oslo operated by Finland's Fortum - if the latter can find external financial support.

This is the second time the oil-producing nation has tried to launch CCS. A decade ago Norway tried to capture greenhouse gas emissions at a gas power plant. State oil firm Equinor, then called Statoil, failed to execute the plan, touted as Norway's moon landing, because of insurmountable cost issues.