Aker Carbon Capture, Northern Lights Team Up On Carbon Capture

Aker Carbon Capture and the Northern Lights JV have signed a non-exclusive Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to collaborate on the realization of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Norway and across Europe.

Aker Carbon Capture said that the two companies represented a full value chain offering from carbon capture through transport and storage. The MoU also seeks to optimize logistics and standardize ship-shore interfaces.

“Through the Longship project, Norway has taken a leadership position in enabling industrial decarbonization through Carbon Capture and Storage. This collaboration between Northern Lights and Aker Carbon Capture aims to build on learnings from the Longship project and enable the accelerated deployment of CCS projects across Europe,” Valborg Lundegaard, Chief Executive Officer of Aker Carbon Capture, stated.

“Interest in CCS is picking up across Europe. Northern Lights is well-positioned to contribute to accelerating the development and we are looking forward to working with Aker Carbon Capture to realize the potential of the CCS market in support of climate targets. This will require technical and commercial innovation as well as cross-sector collaboration,” Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV, added.

The collaboration will allow emitters access to full value chain offerings at locations where the combined technical concept of Aker Carbon Capture’s technology and the CO2 transport and storage capabilities of Northern Lights is best suited.

As for Northern Lights, it is developing an open and flexible infrastructure to transport CO2 from industrial emitters by ship to a receiving terminal in western Norway for intermediate storage, before being transported by a pipeline for permanent storage in a geological reservoir 2,600 meters under the seabed. Operations are scheduled to start in 2024.

The facilities are under construction and will enable Northern Lights to offer a safe and reliable shipping and storage service to industrial emitters from across Europe.

With increased interest from industrial sectors in Europe, additional shipping and storage capacity will be developed as demand grows. The Northern Lights JV, the operator of the project, is a partnership equally owned by majors Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies.

“Northern Lights is a first-mover in enabling open-source CO2 transport and storage infrastructure across north-west Europe. With operations starting in 2024 they are an essential player in enabling the accelerated deployment of the CCS industry,” Jon Christopher Knudsen, Chief Commercial Officer of Aker Carbon Capture, said.

“Their ambitious plans link very well with Aker Carbon Capture’s ambition to have 10 million tons of CO2 on contract by 2025. Together with Northern Lights and with our ‘Carbon Capture as a Service’ offering, we can now develop source-to-storage decarbonization on a pay per ton of captured CO2 model,” Knudsen concluded.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com