The Greensand carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Denmark has been granted approval to store carbon emissions offshore, allowing its pilot phase to move ahead.

The Danish Energy Agency has awarded a permit to test the storage of 15,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in the Nini West sandstone reservoir in the North Sea.

This is the first time that a permit for carbon storage on domestic subsoil is awarded in the country.

“The first Danish permit to store CO2 underground testifies to progress on all parameters and from all consortium partners in Project Greensand,” said Soren Reinhold Poulsen, director at Project Greensand.

The permit green lights the following step of the Greensand’s pilot, which involves trial injection of CO2 collected from an Ineos Oxide plant in Belgium. The CO2 will be injected for permanent storage in the depleted Nini West oilfield.

A spokesperson for Greensand told Upstream in November that the project is on track to start trialling CO2 injection around the end of the year.

By 2025, Greensand aims to achieve storage capacity to 1.5 million tonnes per annum of CO2 and expand this to up to 8 million tpa by 2030.

Last week, Greensand main backer, Ineos, awarded engineering company Kent a contract to carry out screening studies of the project’s CCS value chain.

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