Factbox: Carbon capture and storage projects across Europe

Styrenix Performance Materials

07/03/2023 14:04

(Updates throughout with newest developments)
       March 7 (Reuters) - Efforts to remove carbon dioxide
(CO2) emissions from industry and store them underground storage
have gained steam across Europe over the past few years as
countries seek to meet their climate goals. 
    The interest in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology
has been also driven by rising EU carbon permit costs which hit
a record hit a record of 100 euros per tonne in February.
    Scientists have said CCS needs to be rapidly scaled up to
help keep global average temperature rise under 2 degrees
Celsius this century. 
    Here are some projects under development or being planned in
Europe:
        
    NORTH SEA
    
    NORWAY     
    * Northern Lights, a joint venture project by Equinor
 EQNR.OL , TotalEnergies  TTEF.PA  and Shell  SHELL.L . It plans
to start injecting up to 1.5 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of
CO2 into saline acquifer near the Troll gas field from the
middle of 2024. There are plans to increase storage capacity to
5-6 mtpa from 2026, pending demand.
    
    * Smeaheia, a project by Equinor to develop a storage site
in the North Sea with a potential to inject up to 20 mtpa from
2027/2028. Equinor, which was awarded the exploration license in
2022, said it is looking at injecting the CO2 captured from its
own hydrogen production, as well as some industrial customers in
Europe. The company aims to make the final investment decision
in 2025. 
          
    * Luna, a project led by German Wintershall Dea  WINT.UL ,
to store up to 5 mtpa of CO2 at a site some 120km west of
Bergen. Wintershall Dea and its Norwegian partner Cape Omega
were awarded exploration license in October. Wintershall Dea has
60% stake and Norway's Cape Omega the remaining 40% in the
license.
    
    * Errai, a joint project by Britain's Neptune Energy and
Norway's Horisont Energi  HRGI.OL  to develop a storage site in
the North Sea with 4-8 mtpa capacity and a receiving terminal
onshore. Germany's E.ON  EONGn.DE  plans to join the project, if
Norway approves the application for the license to store CO2.   
        
    * Trudvang, a joint project by Sval Energi, Storegga and
Neptune Energi to develop a storage site east of the Sleipner
gas field in the North Sea with a capacity to inject about 9
mtpa of CO2 from 2029. Sval is the proposed operator of Trudvang
with a 40% ownership, while Storegga and Neptune each have 30%.

    BRITAIN
    * Acorn CCS, a project off the coast of Scotland to develop
a storage site with an annual capacity of 5-10 mtpa of CO2 by
2030. Storegga, Shell and Harbour Energy each hold 30% stakes
and North Sea Midstream Partners (NSMP) the remaining 10% in the
project.    
    
    * Viking CCS, led by independent oil and gas firm Harbour
Energy  HBR.L , aims to store up to 10 mtpa of CO2 by 2030 at
the depleted Viking gas field in the southern North Sea. It
plans to start injecting CO2 in 2027, initially at a rate of 2
mtpa of CO2, ramping up to 10 mtpa by 2030 and 15 mtpa by 2035.
RWE  RWEG.DE , Phillips 66  PSX.N , VPI, West Burton Energy are
looking at storing CO2 emissions the Viking site. 
         
    * Northern Endurance, a BP-led  BP.L  partnership, aims to
develop infrastructure to transport and store about 20 mtpa of
CO2 under the seabed in the southern North Sea from 2030. The
project, which also includes National Grid  NG.L , Equinor,
Shell and TotalEnergies, aims to store CO2 emissions captured at
at industrial clusters in Teesside and Humberside.     
    
    THE NETHERLANDS
    * Porthos, a project by the port of Rotterdam, Gasunie and
EBN, aims to store 2.5 mtpa of CO2 in depleted Dutch gas fields
in the North Sea. All storage capacity has been already
contracted by 4 industrial partners: Air Liquide  AIRP.PA , Air
Products  APD.N , ExxonMobil  XOM.N  and Shell. The project
planned to start CO2 injections in 2024-2025, but the startup is
now delayed until 2026 due to legal dispute.
    
    * L10, a project led by Neptune Energy, to store 4-5 mtpa of
CO2 in depleted gas fields in the Dutch North Sea. Other
partners in the project are ExxonMobil, Rosewood Exploration and
state-owned EBN. The partners plan to submit storage license
application in March with first CO2 injections seen in
2027-2028, later than previously planned 2026. 
                        
    DENMARK
    * Greensand, a pilot project led by INEOS Energy  INEO.NS 
and Wintershall Dea, to demonstrate that CO2 can be stored
underground in the Danish part of the North Sea. The project
aims to inject initially up to 1.5 mtpa of CO2 from 2025-2026,
increasing capacity to to 8 mtpa by 2030.
                      
    * Bifrost, a project led by TotalEnergies, aims to inject up
to 3 mtpa of CO2 into depleted Harald gas fields in the Danish
North Sea from 2027, and aiming to increase capacity to more
than 10 mtpa by 2030. The project also involves Orsted
 ORSTED.CO , which operates offshore pipelines, and the
Technical University of Denmark. In February, Denmark awarded
TotalEnergies two CO2 storage licenses including the Harald
area.
                
    GERMANY
    * Wilhelmshaven CO2 export terminal, a project led by
Wintershall Dea to build a CO2 liquefaction and temporary
storage facility at Wilhelmshaven, Germany's only deep-water
port, and then the CO2 could be shipped or piped to permanent
storage sites under the North Sea. It aims to initially handle
about 1 mtpa of CO2 from 2026. 
        
    OTHER STORAGE POINTS
    
    BRITAIN
    * HyNet North West project aims to convert gas and fuel gas
from the Stanlow refinery in Cheshire into low-carbon hydrogen,
capturing and transferring the CO2 produced during the process
by pipelines to offshore storage in the Liverpool Bay.
Pre-existing salt caverns in Cheshire will also be used as
storage. Operations are expected to start in 2025 and will store
about 4.5 mtpa of CO2, rising to 10 mtpa by 2030. 
    
    BULGARIA
    * ANRAV, a project lead by private Irish energy company
Petroceltic, will link CO2 capture facilities at
HeidelbergCement's  HEIG.DE  Devnya cement plant in
north-eastern Bulgaria with offshore permanent storage in the
depleted Black Sea gas field of Galata. Expected to start
operations in 2028, it will have a capacity of 800,000 tonnes of
CO2 per year.
    
    FRANCE
    * PYCASSO, a project capturing carbon from industries in the
south-west of France and in the north of Spain and storing it in
a depleted gas field in Aquitaine. The project is planned to
transport about 1 mtpa of CO2 by 2030.
    
    ICELAND
    * The Coda Terminal will be a cross-border carbon transport
and storage hub in Straumsvík, operated by Icelandic carbon
storage firm Carbfix. CO2 captured from industrial firms will be
shipped to the terminal to be dissolved in water before being
injected into basalt bedrock. The operations, scaled up in
steps, is set to reach up to 3 mtpa of CO2 from 2031.
    
    * The Silverstone project, coordinated by Carbfix, will
deploy commercial scale CO2 capture, dissolve CO2 in water and
inject it into underground basalt rock for mineral storage into
the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant, near Mount Hengill.
Silverstone will capture and store about 25,000 tonnes of CO2 a
year. It is expected to start up in the first quarter of 2025.
    
    ITALY
    * CCS Ravenna Hub, led by energy company ENI  ENI.MI , is a
project to capture CO2 and transport it to offshore depleted gas
reservoirs off the coast of Ravenna in the Adriatic Sea. The
first phase of the project is scheduled in 2023. The full
capture, transport and storage chain will handle up to 100,000
mtpa of CO2.
    
    IRELAND
    * The Cork CCS project aims to store carbon captured from
Irish industrial facilities into a depleted gas field in the
Celtic Sea, potentially re-using an existing pipeline for
transport. The project is lead by utility Ervia.

    SWEDEN
    * Slite CCS, a CCS project lead by HeidelbergCement and its
Swedish subsidiary Cementa, at its Slite cement plant on the
Swedish island of Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It aims to capture
up to 1.8 mtpa of CO2, about 3% of the country's total
emissions, and store those at several sites under development in
the North Sea. 


 (Compiled by Dina Kartid and Nerijus Adomaitis; editing by Nina
Chestney)
 ((nerijus.adomaitis@thomsonreuters.com;))