Northern Lights to invest €660 mn to triple annual CO2 storage capacity

Norwegian joint venture Northern Lights, backed by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies, will invest NOK7.5bn to expand its CO2 storage infrastructure following a new industrial contract signed in Sweden.

Share:

Gain full professional access to energynews.pro from 4.90$/month.
Designed for decision-makers, with no long-term commitment.

Over 30,000 articles published since 2021.
150 new market analyses every week to decode global energy trends.

Monthly Digital PRO PASS

Immediate Access
4.90$/month*

No commitment – cancel anytime, activation in 2 minutes.

*Special launch offer: 1st month at the indicated price, then 14.90 $/month, no long-term commitment.

Annual Digital PRO Pass

Full Annual Access
99$/year*

To access all of energynews.pro without any limits

*Introductory annual price for year one, automatically renewed at 149.00 $/year from the second year.

The Northern Lights project, located off the Norwegian coast, will increase its annual capacity for subsea carbon dioxide (CO2) storage from 1.5 to 5 million tonnes. The announcement was made on 27 March by the joint venture comprising Equinor ASA, Shell PLC and TotalEnergies SE, which has committed NOK7.5bn (€660 mn), including €131 mn in funding from the European Commission.

Originally designed to handle 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year, the site operates at a depth of 2,600 metres in a saline aquifer 110 kilometres offshore, near Bergen. The second phase of expansion, scheduled for completion in the second half of 2028, is conditional upon confirmed demand from European industry players.

Industrial partnership with Swedish power plant

The joint venture has signed a contract with Stockholm Exergi AB, a Swedish thermal and power generation company, to transport and store up to 900,000 tonnes of CO2 annually. This CO2 will be captured from its biomass-powered plant in Stockholm and transported in liquefied form to the west coast of Norway.

The technical process involves shipping the CO2 to a land-based facility near Bergen, from where it is injected via a pipeline system into the subsea geological formation. This agreement expands the project’s industrial base, which until now had been limited to Norwegian sources.

Industry reference data

According to figures published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the current global CO2 capture capacity stands at 50.5 million tonnes per year, equivalent to approximately 0.1% of annual global emissions. The development of infrastructure such as Northern Lights aligns with ongoing efforts to structure a cross-border logistics chain for CO2 transport and storage in Europe.

TotalEnergies reduced its stake in the Bifrost CO2 storage project in Denmark, bringing in CarbonVault as an industrial partner and future client of the offshore site located in the North Sea.
The United Kingdom is launching the construction of two industrial carbon capture projects, backed by £9.4bn ($11.47bn) in public funding, with 500 skilled jobs created in the north of the country.
Frontier Infrastructure, in partnership with Gevo and Verity, rolls out an integrated solution combining rail transport, permanent sequestration, and digital CO₂ tracking, targeting over 200 ethanol production sites in North America.
geoLOGIC and Carbon Management Canada launch a free online technical certificate to support industrial sectors involved in carbon capture and storage technologies.
AtmosClear has chosen ExxonMobil to handle the transport and storage of 680,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year from its future biomass energy site at the Port of Baton Rouge, United States.
The Dutch start-up secures €6.8mn to industrialise a DAC electrolyser coupled with hydrogen, targeting sub-$100 per tonne capture and a €1.8mn European grant.
Japan Petroleum Exploration is preparing two offshore exploratory drillings near Hokkaidō to assess the feasibility of CO₂ storage as part of the Tomakomai CCS project.
The Singaporean government has signed a contract to purchase 2.17 million mtCO2e of carbon credits from REDD+, reforestation and grassland restoration projects, with deliveries scheduled between 2026 and 2030.
The Canadian government is funding three companies specialising in CO2 capture and utilisation, as part of a strategy to develop local technologies with high industrial value.
European carbon allowance prices reached a six-month high, driven by industrial compliance buying ahead of the deadline and rising natural gas costs.
Zefiro Methane Corp. completed the delivery of carbon credits to EDF Trading, validating a pre-sale agreement and marking its first revenues from the voluntary carbon market.
Hanwha Power Systems has signed a contract to supply mechanical vapour recompression compressors for a European combined-cycle power plant integrating carbon capture and storage.
A prudent limit of 1,460 GtCO2 for geologic storage reshapes the split between industrial abatement and net removals, with oil-scale injection needs and an onshore/offshore distribution that will define logistics, costs and liabilities.
Frontier Infrastructure Holdings drilled a 5,618-metre well in Wyoming, setting a national record and strengthening the Sweetwater Carbon Storage Hub’s potential for industrial carbon dioxide storage.
The Northern Lights project has injected its first volume of CO2 under the North Sea, marking an industrial milestone for carbon transport and storage in Europe.
Verra and S&P Global Commodity Insights join forces to build a next-generation registry aimed at strengthening carbon market integration and enhancing transaction transparency.
Singapore signs its first regional carbon credit agreement with Thailand, paving the way for new financial flows and stronger cooperation within ASEAN.
Eni sells nearly half of Eni CCUS Holding to GIP, consolidating a structure dedicated to carbon capture and storage projects across Europe.
Investors hold 28.9 million EUAs net long as of August 8, four-month record level. Prices stable around 71 euros despite divergent fundamentals.
The federal government is funding an Ottawa-based company’s project to design a CO2 capture unit adapted to cold climates and integrated into a shipping container.