The Norwegian Offshore Directorate has offered four exploration licenses to six companies for carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the North Sea. This is the sixth time acreage has been awarded for CO2 storage pursuant to the CO2 Storage Regulations.
The licenses are offered with a binding work program which includes mileposts to ensure progress or return of the areas if the licensees do not carry out the storage project.
Equinor was awarded operatorships and a 100% share for Albondigas and Kinno licenses. These licenses are each expected to have storage capacity of about 5 million tonnes/year (tpy) of CO2 when in operation.
Equinor is maturing a ship-based solution as well as a large pipeline to connect industrial emissions in Europe with storage in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The planned CO2 Highway Europe pipeline will have capacity to transport 25-35 million tpy of CO2 from Belgium and France. The Smeaheia storage license, awarded to Equinor in 2022, is the anchor storage for this pipeline development and Albondigas and Kinno will be additional storage opportunities that can be connected.
Vår Energi, OMV (Norge), and Lime Petroleum were awarded the Iroko carbon storage license about 130 km west of the coast from Haugesund. The area has the potential to store up to 7.5 million tpy of CO2 for at least 30 years for a total of about 215 million tonnes. Vår Energi is operator (40%). OMV Norge and Lime Petroleum hold 30% interest.
Aker BP and PGNiG Upstream Norway were awarded the Atlas license in the Norwegian North Sea near the Yggdrasil area, where the Aker BP-operated Yggdrasil field development project is currently under way. The license comes with a work program that includes reprocessing 3D seismic data, conducting geological studies, and a drill-or-drop decision after 2 years. Aker BP is operator with 80% interest. PGNiG holds the remaining 20%.
