Northern Lights preliminarily confirms 5-million tpy storage capacity

Northern Lights JV DA concluded drilling operations for a CO₂ injection well and a contingent injection well within its CO₂ storage license EL001 in the North Sea about 70 km west of Bergen. Drilling began in August using the Transocean Enabler semisubmersible rig.

Preliminary results confirm the storage capacity of at least 5 million tonnes CO₂/year, sufficient for the first two phases of the project, said Børre Jacobsen, managing director, Northern Lights, in a Nov. 11 release (OGJ Online, Mar. 24, 2022). To utilize the capacity, the JV will need to drill additional injection wells.

In 2020, Northern Lights drilled the first CO₂ exploration well that confirmed that the reservoir in the Johansen formation, at 2,600 m depth, is suitable for safe and permanent CO₂ storage.

Northern Lights is a registered and incorporated general partnership with shared liability (DA) owned by Equinor Energy AS, Shell plc, and TotalEnergies SE. It is developing the world’s first open-source CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.

Equinor managed drilling operations on EL001 on behalf of Northern Lights.