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.
The Equinor-operated Snøhvit field in the Norwegian sector of the Barents Sea supplies gas to the world’s first LNG plant with CO2 capture and storage.
The gas field In Salah is so far the only project outside Norway where we have helped capture and store CO2. When injection was stopped 2011 due to capacity limitations in the geological structure, 3.86 million tonnes of CO2 had been stored underground.
Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a technology that can capture approx. 95% of the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions produced from the use of fossil fuels in electricity generation and industrial processes, preventing the carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, and storing it permanently underground.
To learn more about CCS and CCUS technology, how it works and how it can be applied, see the links to relevant pages here.
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the few technological solutions that can contribute to a significant reduction in emissions from industrial operations based on coal or gas power, keeping CO2 out of the atmosphere that would otherwise worsen climate change.
Important contributions can also be made by applying CCS to the cement and steel industries, which represent 14 % of the world's CO2 emissions.
Technology development within bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) can make BECCS a negative emissions technology. By extracting bioenergy from biomass and capturing and storing the carbon, we can remove historic CO2 emissions from the atmosphere.
CCS will be crucial for decarbonising industries such as cement and steel where production itself results in large CO2 emissions, as well as other industries.
CCS involves three major steps; capturing CO2 at the source, compressing it for transportation and then injecting it deep into a rock formation at a carefully selected and safe site, where it is permanently stored.
Capture: The separation of CO2 from other gases produced at large industrial process facilities such as coal and natural-gas-fired power plants, steel mills, cement plants and refineries.
Transport: Once separated, the CO2 is compressed and transported via pipelines, trucks, ships or other methods to a suitable site for geological storage.
Storage: CO2 is injected into deep underground rock formations, usually at depths of one kilometre or more.
Energy from fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas is released in the combustion (burning) and conversion process, which also results in the emission of CO2 as a by-product. CO2 is also a by-product of the production and purification of natural gas.
There are three basic types of CO2 capture: pre-combustion, post-combustion and oxyfuel with post-combustion.
For more information, see Global CCS Institute.
Equinor has been developing technology to make this possible for more than 20 years, and we are a part of more than 40 research projects on carbon capture and storage.
The seabed off the coast of Norway is well suited to storing CO2, and we can potentially store the equivalent of a 1000 years of Norwegian emissions under the North Sea.
Carbon dioxide, or CO2, is naturally present in the earth’s atmosphere as a trace gas. As its name indicates, it consists of one part carbon and two parts oxygen. Its natural existence is in the form of a gas, which is inert and non-harmful to humans in low concentrations. Dry ice is carbon dioxide in its solid state.
Carbon dioxide is a by-product of respiration and exhaling in all aerobic organisms, from processes of decay of organic materials, and from the combustion of wood and other organic materials and fossil fuels such as coal, peat, oil and natural gas. Natural sources include volcanoes, hot springs and geysers.
Too much CO2 is building up in our atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, and this has a warming effect that is changing the earth’s climate. This phenomenon is called the greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse gases are gases that contribute to climate change by trapping heat, like the glass in a greenhouse. The gases absorb solar energy and keep the heat close to Earth's surface, rather than letting it escape into space. This trapping of heat is known as the greenhouse effect. The most common and potent greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and certain industrial gases.
Extreme weather, food supply disruptions, and increased wildfires are effects of climate change caused by greenhouse gases. Today, climate change is the term scientists use to describe the complex shifts driven by greenhouse gas concentrations that are now affecting our planet’s weather and climate systems.
Virtually every sector of the global economy, from manufacturing to agriculture to transportation to power production, contributes greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, so all of them must evolve away from fossil fuels if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Countries around the world acknowledged this reality with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015.
The technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions include replacing fossil fuels with renewable sources, boosting energy efficiency, discouraging carbon emissions by putting a price on them, and capturing CO2 from power plants and factories.
CCS is a proven technology that has been used commercially for four decades and has been used at commercial scale in several nations. Equinor has developed successful monitoring programs through 25 years of CCS experience, showing that CO2 can be stored safely underneath the seabed. The Northern Lights project has further demonstrated the safety and efficiency of CCS technology.
Safely and permanently stored deep underground
Storing CO2 utilizes the same mechanisms that have kept oil and natural gas trapped underground for millions of years. The CO2 is stored at depths greater than 1 km. It is injected into saline formations suitable for storage or in depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Subsurface CO₂ storage requires two key elements: presence of a porous and permeable storage rock formation and a caprock that seals it. A suitable formation must form a ‘trap’ with the caprock. The structures that keep CO₂ in place are very similar to those in oil and gas fields, where hydrocarbons have remained stored for many million years.
