ESA accepts public funding of carbon capture at Mongstad

On 16 July the EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) accepted that the Norwegian State’s partaking in the Test Center Mongstad is compatible with the state aid rules of the EEA Agreement.

The test center is the first step towards a full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) solution at Mongstad. Full-scale carbon capture and storage shall be operational in 2014. The objective is to gain experience and develop solutions which can contribute to reducing cost and technical and financial risks related to large scale CO2 capture.

-This means that we can continue our work with Test Center Mongstad. This is a big step towards developing and testing new CO2 capture technology, says Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

-The Test Center lays the basis for important parts of the further fight against climate change. Our goal is that industrial actors take part in the development of this technology in order for the experience and knowledge on CCS to be spread to new users, the Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Riis-Johansen says.

In July 2007, the Norwegian authorities notified the intention of the Norwegian State to invest in a company that shall construct and own the Test Center Mongstad. ESA does not to raise objections to the Norwegian State’s investment of up to 80 percent in the company that will construct and own the Test Centre Mongstad in the western part of Norway. 

In 2006, the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy and Statoil signed an agreement to establish a full scale carbon capture project in conjunction with a combined heat and power plant at Mongstad. The project will develop in two stages. The CO2 technology Test Centre Mongstad will be in place in 2011. In this first stage, technological solutions will be tested in parallel. The second stage of the Mongstad project implies the construction of a full scale carbon capture plant in connection with the combined heat and power plant. The full-scale capture and storage solution is planned to be operational in 2014.