EU2NSEA: A major European cross-border CO₂ pipeline network with storage in the North Sea

A group of leading European industrial companies have joined forces to establish a major new cross-border CO₂ pipeline network infrastructure called the EU2NSEA project.

A group of leading European industrial companies have joined forces to establish a major new cross-border CO₂ pipeline network infrastructure called the EU2NSEA project.

The Norwegian energy company Equinor (as coordinator for the application for the PCI status), Belgian energy infrastructure operator Fluxys, British energy company Harbour Energy, Norwegian energy infrastructure operator Gassco, French energy infrastructure operator NaTran and German energy infrastructure OGE, together with a dedicated group of affiliated companies, joined forces to develop a project to establish a major cross-border CO₂ network infrastructure called the EU2NSEA project.

The scope of the EU2NSEA project includes open infrastructural components along the entire CO₂ capture, transport and storage chain:

1. Capture at industrial emission sites in 7 EU member states (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Sweden), with fixed facilities to make the CO₂ ready for its further transportation.
2. CO₂ collection networks and hubs in 5 EU member states (BE, DK, FR, GE, NL), linking industrial emission sites to 4 central CO₂ transshipment hubs/conditioning export terminals; including inland pipelines interconnecting industrial CO₂ emission clusters to the CO₂ collection hubs, and facilities for receiving liquid CO₂ by ship, barge or train, and further pre-conditioning, compression, and liquefaction equipment for cross-border transport.
3. CO₂ transshipment hubs/conditioning export terminals in Zeebrugge (BE), Wilhelmshaven (GE), Dunkirk (FR) and Eemshaven (NL) for collection, receiving, preconditioning, compression, and liquefaction equipment of CO₂ for further cross-border transport.
4. Dedicated high-pressure CO₂ transport pipeline infrastructure from export terminals in Zeebrugge (BE), Wilhelmshaven (GE), Dunkirk (FR) and Eemshaven (NL) to storage sites in the North Sea (NO).
5. Shipping solution concepts in Sture, Øygarden (NO) and Nantes Saint-Nazaire (FR). These projects aim to transport CO₂ from customers located in Northwest Europe to onshore terminals before being transported to the storage sites on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS). This solution will be used as a complement to the overall pipeline infrastructure to bring resilience and flexibility to the whole system.
6. Storage sites in the North Sea (NO) for the permanent safe geological storage of CO₂, comprising sub-sea infrastructure and infrastructure within the geological formation.
   

This cross-border transport pipeline network solution will carry CO₂ captured from emitters and CO₂ collection hubs located in North-West Europe to permanent geological storage complexes more than 1500 meters below the seabed in the North Sea.

The project location, the North Sea Basin, is proven to be highly suitable for storing CO₂. Moreover, a significant part of the European CO₂ emissions is generated by emitters located on the coasts of this basin. Nonetheless, the geographical reach of the project is much larger, as CO₂ can be shipped in from neighboring hubs, or transported from inland continental emission locations via pipeline, truck, rail, barge or ship and connected to the CO₂ collection hubs. This will offer emitters in the whole North-West Europe a robust and flexible solution for large-scale decarbonization before the end of this decade.

The pipeline network solution aims to provide resilience and security of CO₂ transport by having a dedicated, high-capacity pipeline infrastructure (38-57 Mtpa CO₂) in place, complemented by a shipping solution, that can operate with high regularity. This solution provides much needed essential evacuation capacity of CO₂ from industrial emitters in North-West Europe and is planned to be operational from 2030. In line with stated objectives, the project will contribute to reduction of national and European emissions by enabling the transport of captured CO₂ from industrial emission points to offshore geological storage sites. It is estimated that up to 847 million tons of CO₂ will be transported and stored over 21 years of operations. The two initial geological storage sites will have capacity of 15 Mtpa CO₂ in full operation.

The emission reductions associated with this project will directly contribute towards the national targets in 7 EU Member States and to EU wide targets.