TotalEnergies, Equinor, and Shell completed the first shipment of carbon dioxide (CO2) from Heidelberg Materials' cement plant in Brevik, Norway, to the Northern Lights storage site on the country's west coast.
The CO2 was moved by ship and injected 2,600 meters (8,530 feet) below the seabed, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) offshore, TotalEnergies and Equinor said in two separate statements on Monday.
The Northern Lights venture, equally owned by the three companies, is the first commercial project in the world to transport and store CO2.
Its initial phase can handle 1.5 million metric tons of emissions a year, capacity that has already been booked by industrial customers in Norway and across Europe.
The partners approved a second phase in March that will expand capacity to more than 5 million tons annually starting in 2028.
Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said that with CO2 safely stored below the seabed, "we mark a major milestone."
The start of operations shows carbon capture and storage "as a scalable industry," Opedal added.
Arnaud Le Foll, a senior vice-president at TotalEnergies, called it "a new phase" for Europe's carbon capture and storage industry.
"This industry now moves to reality, offering hard-to-abate sectors a credible and tangible way to reduce CO2 emissions," Le Foll added.
By Handan Kazanci
Anadolu Agency
energ@aa.com.tr
