First CO2 storage in the North Sea

10-03-2023 Sustainability

First CO2 storage in the North Sea

Thursday 9 March, HRH Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark initiated the first CO2 storage in the Danish North Sea at a ceremony in Esbjerg.

200 kilometres off the mainland and 1800 metres below the seabed, CO2 from a Belgian industrial plant was stored in a depleted oil field.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) will play a key role in mitigating climate change worldwide as well as in Europe. Denmark is leading the way and assuming a pioneering role among European countries with Project Greensand, as the first storage of CO2 in a reservoir in the Danish North Sea has now been initiated.

Project Greensand ranks among the most advanced CCS projects in the EU. For the first time, the entire CCS value chain (capture, transport, and storage) will be implemented across borders. By early April 2023, residual emissions from a Belgian industrial plant, collectively representing up to 15,000 tonnes of CO2, will be stored during the ongoing demonstration phase.

The depleted Nini West oil field in the Danish North Sea will serve as a storage site for the CO2. By 2025/ 2026, 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 could be stored per year as part of Project Greensand. In the final expansion phase, scheduled to begin in 2030, plans call for storing up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 each year. This is more than 13 percent of the total annual emissions of Denmark. The main goal is to store the industrial emissions that it will not be possible to avoid in the future.

Source: Ocean Energy Resources