Aker Carbon Capture and Northern Lights JV to collaborate

Together, the two companies represent a full value chain offering from carbon capture through transport and storage. The MoU also seeks to optimise logistics and standardise ship-shore interfaces.

Northern Lights is developing an open and flexible infrastructure to transport CO2 from industrial emitters by ship to a receiving terminal in western Norway for intermediate storage, before being transported by pipeline for permanent storage in a geological reservoir 2,600 meters under the seabed. Operations are scheduled to start in 2024.

The facilities are under construction and will enable Northern Lights to offer a safe and reliable shipping and storage service to industrial emitters from across Europe. With increased interest from industrial sectors in Europe, additional shipping and storage capacity will be developed as demand grows. Northern Lights JV is owned equally by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.

Valborg Lundegaard, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Carbon Capture, said: “Through the Longship project, Norway has taken a leadership position in enabling industrial decarbonization through carbon capture and storage. This collaboration between Northern Lights and Aker Carbon Capture aims to build on learnings from the Longship project and enable the accelerated deployment of CCS projects across Europe.”

Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV, said: “Interest in CCS is picking up across Europe. Northern Lights is well positioned to contribute accelerating the development and we are looking forward to working with Aker Carbon Capture to realise the potential of the CCS market in support of climate targets. This will require technical and commercial innovation as well as cross-sector collaboration.”

Jon Christopher Knudsen, Chief Commercial Officer of Aker Carbon Capture, said: “Northern Lights is a first-mover in enabling open-source CO2 transport and storage infrastructure across north-west Europe. With operations starting in 2024 they are an essential player in enabling the accelerated deployment of the CCS industry. Their ambitious plans link very well with Aker Carbon Capture’s ambition to have 10 million tonnes of CO2 on contract by 2025. Together with Northern Lights and with our ‘Carbon Capture as a Service’ offering, we can now develop source-to-storage decarbonization on a pay per tonne of captured CO2 model.”