Responsibility for CO₂ in the chain

In August of this year, the report on regulatory lessons from the Longship CCS project was published. The report looked into regulatory challenges for CCS and how these have been handled. One of the topics discussed in the report is who the responsible party is during the transfer and transport of CO₂.

The Longship CCS project is the first of its kind in the world, and the only CCS project under construction in Europe. The project consists of the two capture operators Heidelberg Materials (ETS sector) and Hafslund Oslo Celsio (non-ETS sector) and the transport and storage operator, Northern Lights. Being the first project of its kind presents challenges regarding laws and regulations. Regulations have not been adapted to this industry in Norway, the EU or through bilateral agreements.

Longship is facing regulatory complications because the project includes CO₂ from ETS and non-ETS sectors. Additionally, liquid CO₂ is transported using trucks and ships in this CCS chain, while current regulations have assumed transport is done via pipelines.

Responsibility for monitoring and reporting

The aim of CCS is to eliminate carbon emissions to the atmosphere in order to reduce global warming. For commercial operators in the chain, value for them is linked to the carbon that will be stored. It is therefore important to monitor the quantities of carbon being captured, and any quantities that leak out in the CCS chain.

When we talk about who is responsible for “CO₂ in the chain”, we mean the responsibility for monitoring and reporting on the quantities of CO₂ transferred and any potential leaks along the way. For Longship, the three industrial operators – Heidelberg Materials, Celsio, and Northern Lights – are responsible for monitoring and reporting to Norwegian authorities, but they are responsible for different parts of the chain. Norwegian authorities must then report on this in line with applicable international agreements.

Regulations for ETS sectors

According to the Norwegian interpretation of the EU’s Monitoring and Reporting Regulations, carbon capture operators will be able to deduct CO₂ from their emissions accounts once it has been transferred from the CO₂ transport ship to the reception terminal in Øygarden, on the west coast of Norway. The European Commission has concurred with this interpretation of the law.

For the carbon capture operator, Heidelberg Materials, this means that it cannot deduct carbon dioxide from its emissions account before it has been transferred from the ship to the reception terminal and Northern Lights has issued a confirmation of the quantity of CO₂ that was delivered. According to the EU’s ETS directive, Heidelberg Materials will not have deductions from its emissions approved for any leaks of CO₂ during transport.

During negotiations with the Norwegian state, Heidelberg Materials made it clear that it was unacceptable to risk a financial loss due to leakage of CO₂ from a ship that Heidelberg Materials did not operate itself. It was therefore included in the agreement that Northern Lights and the state will cover the costs in the event of CO₂ leaks from the ship.

Regulations for non-ETS sectors

Hafslund Oslo Celsio is the other capture operator for Longship and will capture carbon from a waste incineration plant in the Oslo area. Celsio is not subject to the rules of the EU’s ETS directive because the plant is part of non-ETS sector.

The carbon captured by Celsio will be transported using trucks to a temporary storage site at the Port of Oslo. From there, it will be transferred over to the CO₂ transport ship operated by Northern Lights. Neither the trucks nor the ships are currently regulated by the EU’s ETS directive.

Once the carbon captured by Celsio has arrived at the Northern Lights reception terminal in Øygarden, all the CO₂ will be regulated by ETS regulations in the same was as for Heidelberg Materials.

The transport and storage operator

With the exception of the ship transport, all of Northern Lights’ activities (the reception terminal, the pipe trench, injection well and storage area) are subject to the EU’s ETS directive. It is clarified that Northern Lights is responsible for any leakages. In the event of leakages, the cost of these will be divided between Northern Lights and the state according to a separate agreement about cost sharing for the volumes in the Longship project.

Commercial customers

Alongside transporting and storing CO₂ from the carbon capture operators Heidelberg Materials and Celsio, Northern Lights has further capacity. They have the option of entering into agreements for transport and storage with other operators. The party responsible for the CO₂ being delivered to Northern Lights’ ships from customers in Norway and abroad will, in principle, be regulated in the same manner as for Heidelberg Materials and Celsio. Individual agreements must be signed if the carbon capture operator will not be responsible for the CO₂ during the transport phase as this is not covered by the EU’s ETS directive. However, regulations here are under development. In a proposal from the European Commission, supported by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament, it has been suggested that all transport for the purposes of carbon storage should be defined as ETS activities. The proposal has not yet been adopted.

Further complications arise when CO₂ needs to be transported across borders. In addition to defining who is responsible on a commercial level, there is also a need to define who is responsible in the countries involved. At what point is the responsibility for a CO₂ leak during transport transferred from one country to another? This question must be clarified and defined through, for example, bilateral agreements between the countries. This must therefore be in place before the start-up of any commercial CCS chain between a new customer and Northern Lights.

The EU system for emissions monitoring and reductions:

EU cooperation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is formed of three pillars. All in all, these three pillars set the upper limit for greenhouse gas emissions. Norway is involved in all three pillars of the EU’s climate policy:

The European Emissions Trading System (ETS) regulates emissions from manufacturing, energy and heat production, petroleum, and air travel through the ETS directive
The Effort Sharing Regulation for non-ETS greenhouse gas emissions: This allocates each country a binding target to reduce emissions from transport, construction, agriculture, waste, and some types of emissions from the oil and gas industry and industrial manufacturing.
The Land-Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation: This regulation sets the rules for how to capture CO₂ in the LULUCF sector. The regulations set an obligation that total greenhouse gas emissions from land-use and forestry must not exceed the captured amount (known as the “no-debit” rule).

This article is based on the report “Regulatory lessons learned from Longship”, which is based on the experiences gained from the Longship project.

Longship State Support Agreements

The State Support Agreements pertaining to the Longship CCS project have been published on the government’s website.

Through the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, the state has entered into State Support Agreements with the companies Heidelberg Materials AS, Hafslund Oslo Celsio AS and Northern Lights JV DA in respect of their involvement in the Longship CCS project.

Longship is a collaboration between the Norwegian state and private businesses. This project is the first of its kind, aimed at developing an infrastructure with the capacity to store significant amounts of CO₂ from multiple countries. The project consists of the two capture operators, Heidelberg Materials and Hafslund Oslo Celsio, as well as the transportation and storage provider Northern Lights.

Redacted versions of these State Support Agreements were published on 7 December 2022 on the government’s website.

Source: regjeringen.no

First steel cut for CO₂ transport ships

At an official steel cutting ceremony, Northern Lights celebrated a new milestone as the world’s largest CO₂ transport ships entered into production this week.

The ships are being built by the Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co. (DSIC) shipyard in China. The ships will carry liquid CO₂ from carbon capture plants to Northern Lights’ terminal in Øygarden, on the west coast of Norway.

Two ships will be built, both 130 metres long and with a loading capacity of 7,500 m³. The ships have been specially designed to transport liquid CO₂ in custom-built tanks.

– We are pleased to see the construction start for these first of its kind CO₂ transport ships. The shipping solution enables flexibility and scalability as Northern Lights develops the world’s first open-source infrastructure for CO₂ transport and storage, says Børre Jacobsen, CEO of Northern Lights in a press release.

The ships will use LNG as their primary fuel and utilise innovative technologies such as a wind-assisted propulsion system and an air lubrication system to reduce emissions.

*Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director of Northern Lights. Photo: Northern Lights*

The ships will be ready in 2024. Once they are operational, they will transport liquid CO₂ from carbon capture plants to the Northern Lights reception terminal in Øygarden on the west coast of Norway. From here, the CO₂ will be pumped through pipelines to reservoirs where it will be permanently and securely stored 2,600 metres below the seabed in the North Sea.

Making history

The construction contract for the two transport ships were awarded to Dalain Shipbuilding Industry Co. after an extensive bidding process, according to Northern Lights. The shipyard is located in Dalian in China’s Liaoning province and is one of the leading shipbuilding groups in China.

“This steel cutting milestone is a historic event for the shipping industry. These first of its kind ships will pave the way to set a new standard for CO₂ shipping. DSIC are proud to deliver the ships in a safe, high-quality, and timely manner” says Gai Yong, project manager at DSIC.

*Photo: Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co.*

The Longship CCS project

Northern Lights is a part of the Norwegian CCS project Longship. The project is a collaboration between the Norwegian state and private businesses. Northern Lights is responsible for the transport and storage aspects of the project. The Heidelberg Materials cement factory and the Hafslund Oslo Celsio waste facility plant at Klemetsrud are the two capture operators for the project.

This CCS project is the first of its kind in the world, aimed at developing an infrastructure with the capacity to store significant amounts of CO₂ from multiple countries. In August 2022, Northern Lights signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a commercial basis with Yara to store CO₂ from Yara’s facility in the Netherlands.

Source: Northern Lights

Please visit our CCS dictionary if there are professional expressions or abbreviations in this text you are not familiar with.

Carbon storage well drilling complete

Northern Lights has announced that drilling operations for its carbon storage site in the North Sea have been successful. Preliminary results confirm a storage capacity of 5 million tons of carbon per year.

The now-complete wells are located about 70 kilometres west of Bergen in the North Sea. The drilling work began in August of this year and has recently concluded. Two wells have been drilled, one for carbon injection, and back-up well for if the primary well is not operational due to maintenance work or other reasons. The drilling of two wells side-by-side will ensure the stable injection of carbon for Northern Lights’ customers when operations commence in 2024.

Annual storage capacity of 5 million tons

– We are delighted to announce that the preliminary results from our drilling operations have confirmed adequate reservoir storage capacity for phases 1 and 2 of the Northern Lights project of at least 5 million tons of carbon per year. To make the best use of this capacity, we have to drill multiple injection wells. The completion of these first drilling operations is a vital step in the right direction, says Børre Jacobsen, CEO of Northern Lights, in a press release.

*Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director, Northern Lights. Photo: Northern Lights*

The well is suitable for safe carbon storage

The area where the drilling took place sits within the EL001 licence that Northern Lights was awarded in 2019. In 2020, Northern Lights began its first drilling operations, which confirmed that the reservoir at the Johansen Formation was suitable for safe and permanent carbon storage.

The wells were drilled in accordance with the Norwegian Carbon Storage Regulations. The work was carried out by the Transocean Enabler rig, and operations were headed by Equinor on behalf of Northern Lights. Northern Lights is a part of the Norwegian Longship CCS project.

*Northern Lights’ storage infrastructure. Illustration: Northern Lights JV*

Source: Northern Lights

Measuring the amount of CO₂ in the transport chain

Once CO₂ has been captured, it needs to be transported from the capture site to a storage site, meaning systems are needed to measure the amount of CO₂ being transported. A system to do this has been developed through the Longship project.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the measures the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes will be necessary in order to sufficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2020, the Longship CCS project was approved by the Storting (the Norwegian Parliament) as the first project of its kind in the world. This however led to challenges when it came to laws and regulatory frameworks. A regulatory framework has not been applied to this sort of industry in Norway or in the EU.

Through working on Longship, aspects of this regulatory framework have been put into place, and agreements have also been signed between the Norwegian state and each industrial operator involved in Longship. The report Regulatory lessons learned from Longship was put together by Gassnova, and examines the regulatory challenges and problems encountered in Longship and how these have been addressed.

Measuring CO₂

One of the areas the report examines is how CO₂ can be measured in the transport chain. The transport chain covers CO₂ being transferred from the capture operator’s tanks over land to specially designed ships up to the CO₂ being transferred to the storage site on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

In Longship’s transport chain, both the quality and the quantity of the CO₂ were measured through a number of measuring points. In addition to measuring the total volume of CO₂ twice between being captured and being stored, the point of using multiple measurements is to monitor the processes in the transport chain.

The first measurement is carried out when the CO₂ is transferred from the capture operator’s temporary storage tanks to the tanker ships. When the CO₂ is transferred from the tanks at the quay to the ships, the amount of CO₂ transferred is calculated from the measurements inside the ship’s tanks at the start and at the end of the transfer. The measurements are taken in this way because the amount in the temporary storage tanks is impacted by fact that the system continues to capture CO₂ supplied to the tanks at the same time as it transfers it from the tanks to the ship. There are also some gas returns from the ship. That is why it is the volume of CO₂ on the ship before and after the transfer which forms the basis of the measurement of the amount of CO₂ that capture operators report to the state. According to the agreements between the state and the industrial operators, this will constitute the formal volume of CO₂ that will be transferred between the capture operator and Northern Lights.

The second measurement of CO₂ in the transport chain is carried out when the CO₂ is transferred from the ship to the reception terminal in Øygarden. The measurement of the total volume of CO₂ is measured twice to ensure that no CO₂ has leaked out during transportation.

Compensation for the volume of CO₂

The agreements between the Longship capture operators and the Norwegian state specify that the capture operators will be compensated for the volume of CO₂ that has been measured during transfer to the ship. The ship to which the CO₂ has been transferred has a specially designed system to measure changes in the CO₂’s liquid level in the ship’s tanks, adjusted for the composition of the CO₂, pressure and temperature.

The agreements between the state and the capture operators require an operator to measure the density of the liquid CO₂ in order to calculate how much liquid CO₂ has been loaded on board the ship. The accuracy of the measurement system has been estimated to be well under the 2.5% margin of error required by the EU’s Monitoring and Reporting Regulation. The principle behind this type of measurement is similar to the system used in business to measure other types of liquefied gas, such as LPG.

You can read more about measuring the amount of CO₂ in the transport chain in chapter 5 of the report.

About Longship:
The Longship CCS project consists of two capture operators and one transportation and storage provider.

Heidelberg Materials’s site in Brevik (owned by HeidelbergMaterials) will capture CO₂ at the cement factory there. The capture facility will capture around 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. The facility will be ready in 2024.
Hafslund Oslo Celsio will capture CO₂ from the energy recovery plant at Klemetsrud in Oslo. The capture facility will capture around 400,000 tonnes of CO₂ per year. The facility will be ready in 2026.
Northern Lights (owned by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies) is responsible for the transportation and storage side of Longship and has the capacity to store 1.5 million tonnes of carbon per year. The Northern Lights facility is in Øygarden. The facility will be ready in 2024.

The project is a collaboration between the Norwegian state and private sector.

The project is the first of its kind in the world, aimed at developing an infrastructure with the capacity to store significant amounts of CO₂ from multiple countries. In August 2022, Northern Lights signed a Memorandum of Understanding on a commercial basis with Yara to store CO₂ from Yara’s facility in the Netherlands.

Gassnova’s role in Longship has been to coordinate project planning, while Gassnova currently follows up on industrial operators’ projects on behalf of the state and coordinates the work on realising the benefits of these efforts. The realisation of benefits involves drawing out the knowledge gained from projects that will benefit future CCS projects.

This article was adapted from Gassnova’s report “Regulatory lessons learned from Longship”, which is based on the experience gained from working with laws and regulatory frameworks in the Longship CCS project. Longship consists of the two capture operators, Heidelberg Materials and Hafslund Oslo Celsio, as well as the transportation and storage provider Northern Lights.

CCS; agreement between Yara and Northern Lights

Yara and Northern Lights have signed the world’s first commercial multinational carbon transport and storage agreement.

At a press conference today, Yara and Northern Lights announced that they have signed the world’s first commercial carbon transport and storage agreement. The agreement covers CO₂ captured at Yara Sluiskil, an ammonia and fertiliser plant in the Netherlands. The parties are agreed on the main commercial terms.

– We would like to congratulate Northern Lights and Yara on this important milestone for the expansion of CCS. Gassnova, together with our owner, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, and industry partners has developed value chains that are now producing major, positive climate impacts through CCS. At the same time, Longship is contributing to value creation across industries both at home and abroad. This is what makes the project unique, says Roy Vardheim, CEO of Gassnova.

This is a groundbreaking agreement for the decarbonisation of European heavy industry, and opens up the market for carbon transport and storage as a service across national borders. The agreement is also unique because it covers businesses in two countries, with any state support. One country will store the other country’s greenhouse gas emissions. This will set the standard for industrial businesses in Europe wanting to make an agreement with Northern Lights.

Groundbreaking for Yara Sluiskil

Netherland-based Yara Sluiskil has already cut 3.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions from its ammonia and fertiliser production since 1990. From 2025, 800,000 tonnes of pure CO₂ will be captured and then transported to Northern Lights in Norway for storage 2,600 metres below the seabed off the coast of Øygarden.

– The rapid decarbonisation of industry is vital, and Yara will be at the forefront of it. I’m so pleased to be able to announce that we are on the way to removing carbon emissions from our factory in Sluiskil. This will take us one step closer to carbon-free food production and increase the supply of clean ammonia for fuel production and power generation, says Svein Tore Holseter, CEO of Yara International ASA in a press release.

Congratulations from the Dutch and Norwegian authorities

– Congratulations to Northern Lights and Yara. This is a day that will go down in history. This agreement highlights CCS as a cost-effective technology and an important contribution for achieving our climate goals, said Terje Aasland, Minister of Petroleum and Energy.

The Dutch Director General for Climate and Energy, Sandor Gaasta, also welcomed the news.

– On behalf of the Dutch government, I would like to congratulate Northern Lights and the Norwegian government for reaching this milestone. It will be almost impossible for the Netherlands to reach its 2030 climate goals without CCS.

*Minister of Petrouleum and Energy Terje Aasland*

Read more about the Longship project here.

Source: Northern Lights

New report from Gassnova about Longship

The report about regulatory lessons from the CCS project Longship is released

The report “Regulatory lessons learned from Longship” is written by Gassnova. In this report the regulatory issues and challenges facing Longship and how these are resolved are discussed in light of the state’s different roles.

– We are very pleased that we now can share this report which we believe will be useful for everyone working in developing CCS, both on the government side and in the industry. The regulatory learning from Longship is important to facilitate the development of new projects within CCS, says Roy Vardheim, CEO of Gassnova.

The report is written for subsequent CCS projects, government actors and others working to facilitate CCS projects.

New milestone reached in Longship CCS project

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.

Annual capacity of 1.5 million tons of carbon

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.

Longship

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