Norway's 'Longship' Carbon Capture Project Sets Sail

---

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Norway has announced the operational start of its flagship carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, 'Longship'.

The government confirmed that the first shipment of CO2 captured from Heidelberg Materials' cement factory in Brevik has been shipped to the receiving terminal near Kollsnes on Norway's west coast. The CO2 will be injected into subsea reservoirs 2,600 meters beneath the seabed at Øygarden, near Bergen, by the Northern Lights group, established by Equinor (NYSE:EQNR) (Stavanger, Norway), Anglo-Dutch firm Shell plc (NYSE:SHEL) (London, England) and French company TotalEnergies SE (NYSE:TTE) (Courbevoie, France). It is the world's largest commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) project. Additionally, Northern Lights will store CO2 from the Hafslund Celsio (Oslo, Norway) waste-to-energy plant in Oslo, as part of the Longship project.

The planned annual CO2 capture capacity will be 400,000 tonnes from Heidelberg Materials in Brevik and 350,000 tonnes at Hafslund Celsio in Oslo, which is expected to be commissioned in 2029. The initial 1.5 million-tonne-capacity of Northern Lights' first phase is already booked out. Industrial Info is tracking 15 projects across numerous sectors related to the Northern Lights initiative, worth more than US$1.4 billion in investment. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Project Database can click here for the reports.

Minister of Energy Terje Aasland said: "Longship demonstrates that it is possible to cut emissions from the industry and waste in a safe and effective way. This is a technological breakthrough and a milestone in Norway's climate efforts. We have built a complete value chain for CO2 management that will have a significant impact far beyond our borders."

Aasland also confirmed permission for the Phase 2 expansion of Northern Lights, which will see storage capacity boosted to 5 million tonnes. Phase 2 will build on existing onshore and offshore infrastructure, including expanding the onshore terminal at Øygarden with a new jetty, constructing additional storage tanks and increasing the pump capacity. Offshore, the number of injection wells will be increased from two to four. It will be completed and ready for operation in the second half of 2028. "This is enormously important," he said. "We will not reach our climate targets without large-scale carbon management. The fact that Northern Lights has decided to invest in expanding its capacity, on a purely commercial basis, is a milestone in the work to combat climate change and to establish CO2 storage as a new Norwegian ocean industry".

He added: "We are now seeing the value of the state investing in green, immature technologies in an early phase. If the authorities had not facilitated and invested in large-scale CO2 storage on the continental shelf, we would not be seeing this development today. We have now reached the point where Norway can offer CO2 storage services to European companies with large point source emissions, on commercial terms. This presents great opportunities." Industrial Info reported in April that Northern Lights had made a final investment decision to pump more than US$700 million into the second phase. It came after the partners signed a commercial agreement with Stockholm Exergi (Stockholm) to transport and store up to 900,000 tonnes of biogenic CO2 annually for 15 years. Stockholm Exergi operates a biomass power plant in Stockholm, Sweden, and wants to capture and store the biogenic CO2 created from burning organic materials. For additional information, see April 15, 2025, article--Northern Lights Carbon Project Gets US$700 Million Expansion.

The government is supporting the Longship projects with approximately NOK 22 billion (US$2.15 billion) in grants for construction and operation. The total estimated cost of the project, including 10 years of operation, is around NOK 34 billion (US$2.33 billion).

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).