A new agreement has been created between ORLEN and Equinor and this agreement involves the two companies identifying potential CO2 storage sites. To complete this task, the companies are looking at both land-based locations, as well as areas within the Polish section of the Baltic Sea.

Recently ORLEN created a new strategy and as part of this new strategy, the company is now dedicated to achieving an annual carbon capture, transport and finally storage capacity of four million tonnes. ORLEN’s goal with this strategy, is to have created this storage capacity by 2035. Once complete, a portion of this capacity will be allocated to advancing the net zero goal set out by the ORLEN Group. This net zero goal, applies predominantly to the company’s petrochemical and refining assets and from there, the remainder would then be offered to various other firms, in the form of a service.

Altogether, ORLEN’s plans around CCS  as well as their collaboration with the Norwegian partner, emphasises the company’s goals around decarbonisation, whilst they also reflect the new European regulations and highlight the way the companies are working to adhere to them. It was back in June 2024, when the EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) was brought into action. The purpose of this act, is to enhance the ‘competitive strength of European companies in zero-emission technologies,’ whilst also ‘improving access to such solutions.’ Whilst it supplies other provisions, the NZIA lays out specific targets for CCS capacity development and a large goal within these, is that it instructs that, ‘the EU achieve an annual CO2 injection capacity of 50 million tonnes by 2030.’ The predominant focus for this goal, are companies which are involved with oil and gas extractions within the EU and this includes ORLEN.

Now that this partnership has been created and goals have been set, the next step is for the companies to assess the feasibility of joint projects and this will be down through choosing storage locations within Poland.

Member of the ORLEN Management Board, Upstream, Wieslaw Prugar, commented, "Our collaboration with Equinor marks a major milestone in advancing the ORLEN Group’s strategic goals. We are joining forces with an experienced and driven partner to develop unique know-how in the CCS technology. Building on this knowledge, we aim to establish a new, forward-looking business area that will boost our decarbonisation potential. At the same time, the initiative has the potential to serve as a catalyst giving rise to an entire ecosystem of businesses that could grow, create value, and generate new jobs. This is how we fulfil our role as the energy transition leader.”

EVP Marketing, Midstream and Processing in Equinor, Irene Rummelhoff, mentioned, "Building on an already well-established energy partnership, this agreement mark another step in our collaboration with Orlen. Both companies are committed to delivering energy security while progressing low carbon solutions and development of renewable energy. We look forward to working together with Orlen to identify potential CO2 storage opportunities in Poland where the two companies could complement each other’s strengths.”