CCS: Carbon capture and storage — making net zero possible
Workers at our Northern Lights project. Photo: Ole Jørgen Bratland
Climate change is a global challenge that affects countries and economies around the world and requires substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions across many sectors.
Renewable energy will play a central role in decarbonising the energy system. However, in several industrial processes and value chains, emissions cannot be eliminated through electrification alone and will require additional solutions alongside other measures.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) captures CO₂ at the point of emission and stores it safely and permanently underground. It is one of the technologies that can help reduce emissions from these hard‑to‑abate sources and support a more sustainable energy system.
CO2 is captured at the emission source: power, industry, waste
CO2 is transported by ship or pipeline to the injection facility
CO2 is injected and stored safely at depths typically >1km
Equinor is building on nearly 30 years of successful CO2 storage offshore in Norway. We are already one of the largest CCS operators worldwide, and we have ambitions to develop further storage licences on the Norwegian continental shelf. We aim to build a pipeline-based infrastructure that can contribute to substantial cost reductions for CCS value chains.
We have been developing and using
CCS technology for nearly 30 years
CO2 is injected and stored safely
more than 1000 metres beneath the seabed
The equivalent of 1000 years of Norwegian CO2 emissions could potentially be stored on the NCS.
In the rocks far beneath the seabed of the North Sea, conditions are perfect for storing the CO2 that Norway and Europe need to prevent from reaching the atmosphere. Plans are now being made for a pipeline that can transport CO2 from Europe to Norway.
CO2 is separated from natural gas or chemical process streams, exhaust gases or even air, and is subsequently permanently stored.
The captured CO2 is compressed, liquefied and pumped deep down into the subsurface to isolate the greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
To decarbonise industries and the energy system in general it is necessary to take in all available technologies, including renewables, clean hydrogen and CCS. While some sectors are easier to decarbonise, others are more complex.
The gap between what it costs to emit CO2 and what it costs to implement CCS is closing as the cost of emitting CO2 increases, hence improving the economic rationale for CCS.
1996
First dedicated CO2 storage at the Sleipner field off the Norwegian coast. Operated by Equinor.
2008
Second industrial-scale CO2 storage in Europe at Snøhvit Field, offshore Norway. Operated by Equinor.
2020
26 commercial CO2 storage facilities in operation globally with a total capacity of around 40 million tonnes per year (GCCSI, 2020)
Leveraging our R&D and innovation capabilities will be key to developing new energy solutions at an acceptable cost. We are focusing on options to maintain the competitiveness of oil and gas in a low-carbon future, with efforts in the area of storage and utilisation of CO2, decarbonisation of natural gas through hydrogen value chains, and low carbon fuel transportation solutions. We are also exploring synergies between renewables and oil and gas value chains.
In August 2023, Equinor acquired a 25 percent interest in Bayou Bend CCS LLC, positioned to be one of the largest US carbon capture and storage projects located along the Gulf Coast in Southeast Texas.
CO2 will be stored 2.5 km beneath the sea bed, permanently and safely
Northern Lights will have an initial storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes CO2 annually.
The Northern Lights project is part of the Norwegian full-scale CCS project called Longship which captures CO2 from industrial sources, transports it by ship to the west of Norway, and via a pipeline to a subsea location offshore in the North Sea for permanent storage.
Equinor is a partner in the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP), which is developing CO2 transport and storage infrastructure for the UK’s East Coast Cluster. The project is enabling the decarbonisation of industry on Teesside and the Humber regions.
Since 1996, we have captured CO2 from the natural gas on the Equinor-operated Sleipner field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. More than 19 million tonnes of CO2 have been injected and stored in a saline formation 1 km below the seabed.
Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) is the world’s largest test facility for CO2 capture technologies, located at one of Norway’s largest industrial facilities, Mongstad in Hordaland county. The knowledge acquired from the TCM facility will be an important contributor towards the development of carbon capture technology.
We have decades of experience from CCS projects of various sizes, successfully maturing the technology from the R&D stage to operations, putting us in a leading position to contribute in making CCS reach commercial scale.
By sharing our research and expertise with research institutions, academia, other companies and authorities we also contribute to the further development of CCS worldwide.
To learn more about CCS and CCUS technology, how it works and how it can be applied, see the links to relevant pages here.
