Wintershall Dea awarded its first CO2 licence in Norway

Germany’s Wintershall Dea and its partner CapeOmega have been awarded a CO2 storage licence in the Norwegian North Sea by the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

Wintershall Dea will be operator of the Luna licence which is located 120km west of Bergen, and is estimated to hold a CO2 storage injection capacity of up to 5 million tonnes per year.

“This award marks a new chapter of our activities in Norway. With our proven track record, our subsea expertise and our ambition to contribute to Europe’s climate goals, we are ideally placed to help deliver the infrastructure Norway needs to become a hub for European carbon storage,” said Hugo Dijkgraaf, Chief Technical Officer at Wintershall Dea.

CEO of CapeOmega, Evy Glørstad, said: “This award is very important for CapeOmega and illustrates our efforts and strategy to provide infrastructure for the energy transition. We have worked closely with Wintershall Dea, sharing the same ambitions and goals to contribute in reducing the CO2 footprint in Europe. As partner, we are also willing to fast-track the development in a new partnership. We look forward to maturing Luna with Wintershall Dea and continue investing in decarbonisation.”

Wintershall Dea said in a statement that it regards the award of the Luna licence as an important milestone in the development of an extensive Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) value chain, connecting European heavy industry with North Sea basins capable of storing carbon emissions. Germany is the largest emitters of CO2 in Europe, while Norway has the largest storage potential for CCS.

The company also plans to build a CO2 hub in Wilhelmshaven, CO2nnectNow, on the German North Sea coast to enable the collection and transport of carbon dioxide.

Wintershall Dea is operator of the licence with 60 per cent of the shares. CapeOmega has 40 per cent of the shares.