Wintershall Dea has been awarded a licence for the exploration and storage of carbon dioxide in the Norwegian North Sea.
The German oil and gas producer said the award from the Norwegian government gives it the go-ahead to proceed with its plans to set up an “extensive carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain” in northern Europe that will collect industrial emissions and move them to permanent storage sites offshore.
The licence, in which Wintershall Dea holds 60% and energy infrastructure partner CapeOmega 40%, covers the Luna acreage, which lies about 120 kilometres west of Bergen and has an estimated injection capacity of up to 5 million tonnes per annum of CO2.
“Wintershall Dea sees the award as an important building block towards developing the Norwegian continental shelf into a leading CO2 storage area in Europe,” the company said.
Last August, Wintershall Dea and Norwegian oil major Equinor announced an agreement to jointly develop CCS infrastructure, including a 900-kilometre pipeline to connect CO2 collection sites in northern Germany to storage sites offshore Norway.
Wintershall Dea plans to build a hub in Wilhelmshaven, on Germany’s North Sea coast, for collection and transport of CO2.
The company aims to cater to industrial customers in heavy industry across Germany that will require capturing and storing of their operations’ CO2 emissions in line with decarbonisation targets.
These include hard-to-abate emissions in industries such as cement, steelmaking, chemicals and fertilisers.
The licence is the fourth awarded so far for the storage of carbon offshore Norway.
