Northern Lights, the First Major Carbon Capture and Storage Project in Norway

Northern Lights is the first project in the world allowing industrial companies to transport and sequester their CO₂ emissions. The project is owned in equal shares by TotalEnergies, Equinor and Shell. Operational since September 2024, the Phase 1 installations can store to 1.5 million tons of CO₂ per year.

TotalEnergies is aiming to develop a CO₂ storage capacity (CCS) of more than 10 million tons by 2030, both for its own facilities and for its customers. Europe has a central role to play in the Company's CCS strategy, especially the North Sea where the Company can harness its status as a long-standing operator as well as its recognized operational and geological skills. Together with Equinor and Shell, we are developing Northern Lights, the first large-scale CO₂ transport and storage project off the Norwegian coast.

Accelerating the decarbonization of heavy industry in Europe

Approved by the Norwegian government in 2020 and designated as a Project of Common Interest (PIC⁽¹⁾) by the European Union, Northern Lights aims to transport, receive and store CO₂ in geological layers buried at approximately 2,600 meters below the seabed in the Northern North Sea. The goal is to help European industrial companies reduce their CO₂ emissions.

Northern Lights can receive and store CO₂ since September 2024. It offers a safe and reliable shipping and storage service to industrial emitters across Europe, with a storage capacity of 1.5 million tons of CO₂ per year during Phase 1 of the project. In response to growing interest in these services from several industrial sectors, additional shipping and storage capacities up to 5 million tons per year will be developed as demand increases.

 A first commercial agreement signed with Yara

The first commercial agreement was signed in August 2022 with Yara to transport and store CO₂ captured from Yara Sluiskil, an ammonia and fertilizer plant in the Netherlands. Some 800,000 metric tons of CO₂ per year will be captured, compressed and liquefied in the Netherlands and then transported to the Northern Lights site to be permanently sequestered off the coast of Øygarden in the Norwegian North Sea.

The Northern Lights project in a few dates

⁽¹⁾ Defined as key infrastructure projects to complete the European energy market in order to help the EU achieve its energy and climate policy goals.