Status september 2023, Longship

Construction of the Northern Lights CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure and Heidelberg Materials’ capture plant is progressing.

• Celsio decided in April to introduce a twelve-month cost reduction phase and place the construction on hold after an updated cost estimate showed that the carbon capture project would exceed the maximum budget stipulated in its government funding agreement.
• Longship will be operational with captured CO₂ from Brevik, transport and storage in 2025, behind the initial plan (late 2024), according to the latest communication from the Government (Prop. 118 S (2022-2023)).

Status Northern Lights

• Construction of the Northern Lights CO₂storage facility is 86,3% completed (2023.08.31).
• The visitor centre was opened in October 2022 by the Norwegian prime minister Støre.
• Preliminary results from drilling operations confirm the storage capacity of at least 5 million tonnes CO₂per annum. The drilling of one CO₂ injection well and one contingent injection well is completed.  
• Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. (DSIC) is building ships dedicated for CO₂ transport for Northern Lights. September 1, Northern Lights awarded the third ship building contract to DSOC. The overall progress for the first ship, including detailed design, engineering, procurement etc., are now 50,2 % completed (2023.08.31) and it will be delivered in 2024.
• Northern Lights has entered into transport and storage agreement with Ørsted to store 430,000 tonnes biogenic CO₂per year from two power plants in Denmark from 2026. Northern Lights is labelling this as an essential step for creating a commercial market for CCS in Europe. In August 2022, Yara and Northern Lights agreed on the main commercial terms on cross border CO₂ transport and storage. From early 2025, up to 800,000 tonnes of CO₂ will, according to plan, be captured from Yara’s ammonia and fertiliser plant in Sluiskil in the Netherlands and transported and stored by Northern Lights.
• Northern Lights plan to increase storage capacity to 5 million tonnes per year through an additional development phase (Phase 2) and an increasing customer base. The phase 2 development plan is subject to a final investment decision. FEED studies for phase 2 have been completed.

Status Heidelberg Materials

• Overall accumulated actual progress is 66,0% for the Brevik CCS Project (2023.08.31).
• Generally, Brevik CCS is progressing well, but the project organisation expresses some concern about delays from subcontractors due to the global disturbances in crucial supply chains caused by war in Ukraine and covid-19, leading to major uncertainties in supply of critical materials, equipment, and logistics.
• A very important milestone was reached in August 2023 with the lifting into position of the absorber and absorber stack. This piece of equipment is now the highest point of Brevik Plant and is a very visible testimony that Brevik CCS is progressing.
• The Norwegian state and Heidelberg Materials have signed an agreement securing completion of the capture project after the communicated cost overrun in the project. In the agreement, Heidelberg Materials has undertaken to complete the project and cover increased costs. In return, the company retains a larger share of the potential return on the project. The state undertakes to provide a start-up grant of up to NOK 150 million when the facility is ready to ship the first load of CO2 to Northern Lights.
• Brevik CCS has experienced vast interest internally and externally. The installation of the absorber has received a lot of attention both externally as well as internally within Heidelberg Materials. Heidelberg Materials now has several emerging projects in other countries, mainly in Europe and North America. Brevik CCS is the frontrunner both within the company and within the industry.

Status Celsio

• Celsio’s carbon capture project started the civil works, blasting and ground works on site in August 2022.
• In April (2023) an updated cost estimate from Hafslund Oslo Celsio showed that the carbon capture project at their waste incineration plant at Klemetsrud would exceed the investment decision and maximum budget stipulated in its government funding agreement. Celsio decided to introduce a twelve-month cost reduction phase and place the construction on hold. During this phase, Celsio aims to identify possible cost reduction areas, then narrow down and prioritize areas to be investigated. They also investigate possible avoided costs and future revenue as important factors before reaching a new final investment decision in the summer of 2024.
• The reasons for the cost overruns are complex, but not related to the CCS technology.
• There is still a clear ambition for Celsio’s carbon capture project to become the world’s first carbon capture plant on waste incineration in a full value chain with transport and permanent storage of CO₂. Celsio is owned by Hafslund, Infranode and HitecVision.
• The changes to Celsio’s project will not have any impact on the completion of Longship as a whole chain for capture, transportation and storage of CO₂. The Heidelberg Materials and Northern Lights projects have both passed the halfway point in their construction process and will be able to capture and store CO₂ from 2025.

CO₂ transport to Norway

• Norway and Germany have agreed to set up a joint Task Force to follow up the results of an ongoing joint feasibility study, which is looking into possibilities to transport hydrogen and CO₂ between Germany and Norway. The feasibility study is undertaken by Gassco and dena (Deutsche Energie-Agentur) on behalf of the industry and includes a large number of industrial partners.

Resources

• • Spørsmål og svar om Langskip-prosjektet – regjeringen.no / Tidslinje for Langskip (CCS) – regjeringen.no
  • Full-scale CCS project in Norway – Longship