The Northern Lights project, a major cross-border CO₂ transport and storage facility, has announced the delivery of the Northern Pioneer, the world’s first commercial liquefied CO₂ transport ship.
The delivery of the ship means that the ‘final piece of the Northern Lights value chain has fallen into place’, it noted, with the 130-metre long vessel capable of transporting 8,000 tonnes of liquefied CO₂.
“This marks another significant milestone in building the world’s largest dedicated CO2 shipping fleet and demonstrates Northern Lights’ commitment to building a reliable value chain to support Europe’s decarbonisation goals”, commented Tim Heijn, managing director of Northern Lights JV.
Carbon capture and storage
It will go into operation later this year, transporting captured CO₂ from various industrial sites across Europe and delivering it to the Northern Lights receiving terminal in Øygarden, Norway. This CO₂ will then be permanently stored 2,600 meters below the seabed.
Upon its arrival in Stavanger, Tina Bru, former Minister of Petroleum and Energy in the Norwegian government, ‘blessed’ the ship. Bru also played a key role in Norway’s Longship carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, first proposed to the Norwegian Parliament in 2019.
Sister ships
The vessel is registered in Norway and will be managed by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. It is the first in line of four sister ships that are custom designed for CO₂ transport.
‘Next stop for the Northern Pioneer is the CO2 receiving facilities in Øygarden for commissioning,’ Northern Lights added.
Northern Lights, the first company to offer commercial CCS services, has already signed two commercial agreements, with Yara in the Netherlands and Ørsted in Denmark. The joint venture is a registered, incorporated General Partnership with Shared Liability (DA) owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell, and aims to provide a scalable CCS solution for industries across Europe. Read more here.
