The drilling rig Transocean Enabler. Photo: Transocean
10.08.2022
Northern Lights has begun to drill the wells intended for carbon storage in the southern part of the North Sea.
On Friday the Longship CCS project reached a new milestone when Northern Lights initiated drilling for two injection wells for the storage of carbon as part of licence EL001. According to Northern Lights’ website, the Transocean Enabler drilling rig will begin by drilling a carbon injector that will be drilled adjacent to the exploratory well drilled in 2020. Following this, a well will be drilled for injection use in the event that the primary well is out of operation due to maintenance or for other reasons. This will ensure the stable injection of carbon on behalf of Northern Lights’ customers when operations commence in mid-2024.
The wells are located around 100 kilometres west of Bergen in Norway, in the southern part of the North Sea. According to Northern Lights, these wells will have a capacity that allows for the annual injection of 1.5 million tons of carbon into what is known as the Johansen Formation some 2,700 metres below the surface of the sea.
It has been confirmed that the storage complex is suitable for the storage of carbon. The area is typified by the presence of sandstone offering good flow characteristics and the overlying Drake Formation shale provides a good seal. It is important that carbon is not able to leak from the storage complex, and that any carbon injected into the reservoir is thus stored there permanently.
The well currently being drilled are part of Longship, which is a Norwegian full-scale project for carbon capture and storage (CCS). Longship consists of two carbon capture operators, Hafslund Oslo Celsio and Heidelberg Materials AS, as well as the transportation and storage provider Northern Lights. General responsibility for Longship lies with a steering group comprising members from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and Gassnova.
Once the drilling currently under way concludes, Northern Lights will share well data in line with the vision of stimulating new carbon storage projects.
Source: norlights.com
About Longship On September 21st this year, the Norwegian authorities “launched” the Norwegian CCS value chain project “Longship”, which includes capture, transport and storage of CO2. Stored in the Johansen formation The CO2 will be stored in the Johansen formation south of the Troll field, and behind the establishment of this storage is many years …
– Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is important for achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement. The submission of the development plan is a necessary step in order to realize full-scale CO2-capture and storage in Norway. The Northern Lights project will also be able to offer CO2 storage from other countries. Northern Lights is an …
Read the press release from Equinor here
