Capture, transport and storage of CO₂

The government will contribute to developing technology for capture, transport and storage of CO₂ (CCS), and has an ambition to realise a cost effective solution for full scale CCS in Norway, provided this will result in technology development internationally.

Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) state that it will be more difficult and significantly more costly to reach the climate goals without CCS. Technology for CCS will also be decisive to achieve carbon negative solutions in the second half of this century. The IPCC report on the  impacts of global warming of 1.5°C show the need of CCS as one of many necessary climate tools.

The government presented its strategy for the work on CCS in the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy's Prop. 1 s (2014-2015). The tools in the strategy include research, development and demonstration and the work on realising a full scale project with wide spread dissemination potential. The strategy also contains international work to promote CCS. Important parts and tasks are given to the Research Council of Norway and Gassnova SF. Their task is to advance the technology development and to build competence in achieving cost effective solutions for CCS. In order for CCS to become a significant climate change mitigation tool, it is important to develop many demonstration projects. This is essential in order to secure further learning and necessary cost reductions.

To reach the ambition on a full scale CCS project in Norway, pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies and concept studies have been carried out. When the Front End Engineering and Design (FEED) studies and external quality assurance have been completed, the government will assess whether a full scale project should be realised in Norway.

The planned full scale CCS project in Norway comprises capture of CO₂ from industry emissions, transport and storage of CO₂. The CO₂ transport and storage solution is planned with excess capacity, providing an option for storing CO₂ from other capture projects without investments in a new storage site. If the project is realised, an available CO₂ transport and storage solution could make the planning of potential capture projects easier and incentivize new capture projects.