Statoil, Shell, Total to collaborate on CO2 storage

Statoil, Shell and Total 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.

    “Statoil believes that without carbon capture and storage, 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.

As informed, the project will be designed to accommodate additional CO2 volumes, aiming to stimulate new commercial carbon capture projects in Norway, Europe and across the world. In this way, the project could be the first storage project site in the world receiving CO2 from industrial sources in several countries. The first phase could reach a capacity of approximately 1.5 million ton per year.

    “Shell sees CCS as a transformative technology that can significantly reduce emissions from those industrial sectors that will continue to rely on hydrocarbons for decades to come”, says Monika Hausenblas, Shell’s executive vice president for Environment and Safety.

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.

    “The aim of this first integrated industrial-scale project, supported by the Norwegian Government, is to develop viable, reproducible commercial CCUS model in view of carrying out other major projects around the world,” said Philippe Sauquet, President, Gas, Renewables & Power and President, Strategy-Innovation at Total.