Statoil, Shell and Total Forge CO2 Storage Deal
Statoil, Shell and Total have signed a partnership agreement to mature the development of carbon storage on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS). The project is part of the Norwegian authorities’ efforts to develop full-scale carbon capture and storage in Norway.
In June, Gassnova awarded Statoil the contract for the first phase of the project. Norske Shell and Total E&P Norge are now entering as equal partners, while Statoil will lead the project. All the partners will contribute people, experience and financial support.
The first phase of the project could reach a capacity of approximately 1.5 million ton per year. The project will be designed to accommodate additional CO2 volumes, aiming to stimulate new commercial carbon capture projects in Norway, Europe and globally. As a result, the project has the potential to be the first storage project site in the world receiving CO2 from industrial sources in several countries.
The storage project will store CO2 captured from onshore industrial facilities in Eastern Norway. This CO2 will be transported by ship from the capture facilities to a receiving terminal located onshore on the west-coast of Norway. At the receiving terminal CO2 will be transferred from the ship to intermediate storage tanks, prior to being sent through a pipeline on the seabed to injection wells east of the Troll field on the NCS. There are three possible locations for the receiving terminal; a final selection will be made later this year.
“Statoil believes that without carbon capture and storage (CCS), it is not realistic to meet the global climate target as defined in the Paris Agreement. A massive scale up of number of CCS projects are needed and collaboration and sharing of knowledge are essential to accelerating the development,” says Irene Rummelhoff, Statoil’s executive vice president for New Energy Solutions. “We trust that this robust partnership is well positioned to develop this first-of-a-kind project.”
The technologies for carbon capture and storage in geological formations are known and established. There are 21 full-scale carbon capture and storage projects worldwide in the development or operations phase. Statoil’s CCS projects at Sleipner and Snøhvit are among these, and have given Statoil more than 20 years of operational carbon storage experience.
Future carbon storage may also help realize a hydrogen market, says Statoil. Hydrogen produced from natural gas generates CO2 as a by-product, and with a value chain for CO capture, transportation and storage it will be possible to further examine a full-scale value chain for hydrogen, which is a low-carbon energy solution with potentials within both power, heating and transportation.