Northern Lights, Yara pen ‘groundbreaking’ deal to store CO2 emissions

Copenhagen, Aug 29 (EFE).- Energy group Equinor on Monday announced a pioneering project to transport carbon emissions captured at fertilizer maker Yara’s Dutch plant and store it off the coast of Norway.

The project will be carried out through the Northern Lights joint venture — which brings together oil giants Equinor (Norway), Shell (UK and Netherlands) and TotalEnergies (France) — making it the first cross-border commercial agreement of its kind.

The project “is groundbreaking for the decarbonization of European heavy industry, opening the market for cross border CO2 transport and storage as a service,” the Norwegian group said.

Starting in early 2025, 800,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year from the Yara plant — one of the world’s largest fertilizer producers — will be captured, compressed and liquefied to be transported by ship to a storage terminal that will be 2,600 meters under the North Sea ocean floor off the coast of Øygarden (southwest Norway).

“Action to decarbonize industry is urgent and Yara is a frontrunner,” Svein Tore Holsether, CEO at Yara International, said in a statement.

“This will take us a step further towards carbon-free food production and accelerate the supply of clean ammonia for fuel and power production,” he added.

The deal with Yara will mean Northern Light’s annual storage capacity of 1.5 million tons of carbon will be fully utilized.

Northern Lights, which already has several projects underway with other firms, said it was working to expand its annual storage capacity to up to 6 million tons.

“Yara is our first commercial customer, filling our available capacity in Northern Lights. With this we are establishing a market for transport and storage of CO2,” Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director of Northern Lights, said.

“This will demonstrate that Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS) is a climate tool for Europe,” Jacobsen added. EFE

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