Gassnova awards contracts for CO2 studies

Norcem, Yara and the Klemetsrud facility have all been awarded financial support to continue their studies on carbon capture.

Feasibility studies from July 2016 show that carbon capture is technically possible at Norcem's cement factory in Brevik, at Yara's ammonia factory on Herøya and at the energy recovery plant at Klemetsrud. Going forward, the carbon capture facilities will planned in greater detail and with more accurate cost estimates. The basis for decisions should be complete by the autumn of 2018 so that any investment decisions can be taken by the Storting in the spring of 2019.

The plan is that carbon from one or more of these facilities will be transported by ship to intermediate storage. The carbon will subsequently be carried by pipeline to a store under the seabed in the North Sea. The Smeaheia area, to the east of the Troll gas field, and around 50 km offshore, has been chosen as the storage site. According to the schedule, a contract will be signed with an operator of the store before the summer. Statoil conducted the feasibility study that identified the Smeaheia area as an optimal storage site.

We are delighted that all three providers are going to remain on board. They represent three industries that will all need carbon capture and storage in future. This climate solution must be applied on a large scale globally if we are to achieve the targets set in the Paris agreement,' said Trude Sundset, CEO of Gassnova.

In addition, Gassnova is in negotiation with industrial actors regarding concept studies on storage. Contracts for carbon storage will be awarded later this spring. In 2017, 360 million NOK was awarded to work on full scale CCS projects.

"CCS is an important part of the Norwegian Government's climate policy," said the Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Mr. Terje Søviknes (Progress Party). "The Government's ambition is to realize at least one full scale demonstration project for carbon capture and storage. The substantial interest from industry partners in the project is vital, and we are pleased that contracts are awarded to three industrial actors."

Comments from the proect operators

'The world is being overwhelmed by poor waste management. In future, we can see the potential for up to 140 million tonnes of carbon being generated from burning waste in Europe. Waste is second only to power generation in terms of being the most important area to get to grips with. At Klemetsrud, we will be able to remove around 90 per cent of carbon using CCS, and we have a lot of biological waste. This means that we are carbon negative. This is completely unique to our project,' says Pål Mikkelsen, CEO of Klemetsrudanlegget.

'Norcem has a vision that our concrete products will be carbon neutral by 2030. CCS is absolutely vital if we are ever going to achieve this. Taking this seriously is also important to us as an industry too. We have an opportunity to be at the top of the game at our factory in Brevik,' says Per Brevik of Norcem.

'Carbon capture can become an important part of the solution for cutting industrial emissions, and through this project we have been granted a unique opportunity to contribute to developing a full scale chain for carbon capture and storage. Now that the award has been made, we are looking forward to the continued dialogue with the authorities, and as an industrial operator in a global market, it will be crucial that we put in place a good incentive scheme for construction and operation,' says Petter Østbø, Executive Vice President Production at Yara.