A final investment decision (FID) has been made by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies to take the Northern Lights project development to phase two. Before this decision was finalised, a commercial agreement with Stockholm Exergi was signed, concerning the transport and storage of 900,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 every years for 15 years.

Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies will invest 7.5 billion NOK into the Northern Lights project, and this investment will include the award from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) funding scheme, which was approved in 2024 by the European Commission, and totalling €131 million.

A huge part of realising a carbon capture, transportation, and storage (CCS) value chain is the customer commitment.

Phase one of this project is fully booked, and with support from the Norwegian government’s Longship initiative, this first phase will follow its purpose to collaborate with customers, authorities, and project partners to demonstrate the feasibility of a new business model, operations, and solutions. Now the project is ready to receive CO2 emitters and is offering a storage solution for CO2, which is permanent and secure.

Increasing the total injection capacity to a minimum of five million tonnes of CO2 per year (Mtpa) from 1.5 Mtpa is the plan for Phase Two of the project. Plus, the expansion within phase two focuses on existing onshore and offshore infrastructure, whilst also including a new jetty, more onshore storage tanks, and more injection wells. Equinor will be the technical service provider (TSP) throughout phase two, with the responsibility for construction, development, and operation on behalf of the partnership. This phase should be completed and ready for operation by the second half of 2028.

CO2 from Heidelberg Materials’ cement factory in Brevik is expected to be delivered to the receiving terminal near Kollsnes on Norway’s west coast, once phase one operations are in action this summer. Through the Longship project, CO2 from the Hafslund Celsio waste-to-energy plant in Oslo will be stored at Northern Lights.

Anders Opedal, CEO of Equinor, commented, “This is a major step in the further development of a large-scale carbon capture, transportation and storage value chain. The support from the Norwegian Government and European Commission has been important contributing factors to successfully completing phase 1 and advancing phase 2. That we are now able to progress the Northern Lights' project second phase on a commercial basis, demonstrates the value of public-private partnerships to reduce risk and attract customers.”

Irene Rummelhoff, Executive Vice President for Marketing, Midstream and Processing in Equinor, added, “I am very pleased that the partners in Northern Lights have progressed to the second phase of the Northern Lights project. As the recently published European Clean Industrial Deal makes clear, large-scale carbon capture, transport and storage will be crucial in the energy transition as it offers a solution for hard-to-abate industrial emitters to decarbonize their processes.”