Orsted wins 20-year Danish contract to capture and store CO2

Aker Carbon Capture ASA

15/05/2023 12:18

By Johannes Birkebaek and Nora Buli
       COPENHAGEN, May 15 (Reuters) - Denmark's government has
awarded energy group Orsted  ORSTED.CO  a 20-year contract to
capture and store 430,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions
annually from two heat and power plants, the Danish company said
on Monday.
    In 2021, Denmark allocated 16 billion Danish crowns ($2.37
billion) in CCS subsidies as part of a plan to cut greenhouse
gas emissions by 70% by the end of this decade compared to 1990
levels, one of the world's most ambitious climate goals.
    Orsted will receive about 8 billion crowns of this to
establish the CCS project, the Danish Energy Agency said in a
separate statement.    
    Orsted in turn said it had awarded Norway's Aker Carbon
Capture (ACC)  ACCA.OL  a contract to provide CO2 capture
technology, sending the Oslo-listed shares of the Norwegian
company up 18% by 1045 GMT.
    ACC said its new contract was worth more than 200 million
euros  ($220 million).
    The project also involves U.S. tech giant Microsoft
 MSFT.O , which in 2021 agreed to cooperate with Orsted to
further its plan to remove as much carbon as it has emitted
since its founding in 1975.
    Microsoft will purchase 2.76 million tonnes of carbon
removals over 11 years from the CCS project at the wood
chip-fired Asnaes Power Station, Orsted said, without providing
a value for the contract.
    "Given the nascent state of bioenergy-based CCS, Danish
state subsidies and Microsoft's contract were both necessary to
make this project viable," Orsted added.
    The captured CO2 will be shipped from Denmark to Norway for
injection under a seabed at the Northern Lights CO2 storage
site, Orsted said.
    It is the second commercial CO2 storage contract for
Northern Lights. Norway's Yara  YAR.OL  signed one last year.
($1 = 6.7638 Danish crowns)
($1 = 0.9084 euros)

 (Reporting by Johannes Gotfredsen-Birkebaek in Copenhagen and
Nora Buli in Oslo; writing by Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by
Terje Solsvik and Barbara Lewis)
 ((nerijus.adomaitis@thomsonreuters.com; +47 9027 6699; Reuters
Messaging: nerijus.adomaitis.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))