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Creating the world's first and largest full-scale carbon capture, transport and storage facility

Since 2011, the Norwegian oil and gas operators Equinor and Gassnova successfully completed two consecutive pre-commercial procurements that developed and tested cost effective solutions for full-scale carbon capture, transport and storage. This is a cornerstone in the EU's climate strategy to reduce CO2 emissions of the energy intensive industries and reach climate neutrality by 2050. Recently the Norwegian government and the EFTA surveillance authority approved 2,5Bn EURO budget for full-scale roll out of the solution, which by 2050 could capture 14% of the CO2 emitted across the entire EU.

Gaining first mover advantage and de-risking technology 

As there were no full-scale Carbon Capture and Storate (CCS) solutions back in 2010, the Norwegian government decided that Statoil (now called Equinor) and Gassnova, two Norwegian oil and gas operators governed by public law, should get those developed and de-risked using pre-commercial procurement (PCP).

Between July 2011-beginning 2013, Statoil and Gassnova carried out the first so-called “Mongstad Carbon Capture PCP” that challenged five vendors to develop different technological solutions to capture carbon. The PCP showed that carbon capture was technically possible but that technologies still created unwanted side effects. After further studies solved those issues, in 2015-2016 Gassnova carried out a second “Full-scale Carbon Capture Feasibility PCP” to compare which of different potential technical site installations in Norway would be suitable for full-scale carbon capture deployment. Meanwhile, Gassnova made also commercial partnerships for the transport and storage of CO₂ that will be coming in from all over Europe to Norway.

After having successful completed these PCPs, which were the two largest PCPs carried out across Europe so far, mid 2020 the Norwegian parliament made the investment decision to roll out CCS at full-scale in Norway by 2022. A budget of €2,5Bn was approved for full scale rolle out in March 2021, of which the Norwegian government will finance 80%. The EFTA surveillance authority also approved €2,1Bn aid for the project. Deployment has already started. This will result in the world's largest and first full-scale carbon capture, transport and storage facility. Read the full story about the two pre-commercial procurements, as well as the full-scale deployment project.

The whole Norwegian CCS project is important in Europe’s fight against climate change: In its long-term climate strategy, the European Union has defined CCS as one of the 7 key technologies to reach climate neutrality in 2050. Once the Norwegian full-scale CCS is rolled-out, other European countries could start transporting CO₂ from their energy intensive industry sites to Norway. By 2050, CCS could capture 14% of the CO2 emitted by the entire EU.

Benefits achieved for buyers and suppliers

The benefits achieved by the two consecutive PCPs for Norway are:

  • The PCPs played a key role in helping Norway to realize its climate change ambitions.
  • The PCPs created a first mover advantage for Norway in developing new technological solutions and new know-how that is expected to create economic growth and jobs in the future.
  • PCP as a procurement method works well.
  • The first PCP triggered five suppliers, including new players, to create new technological solutions that made carbon capture cost efficient at large scale. The buyers now have a wider choice of suppliers. The second PCP successfully encouraged different heavy industry players to start work on optimizing their processes to reduce CO2 emissions as much as possible through carbon capture.
  • The fact that the R&D was carried out in PCP procurements, enabled Norway to take the lessons learnt from each PCP into account when drafting new requirements for the next series of CCS investments.  Using separate R&D procurements also enabled to make CCS technology more cost efficient before determining the budget for and committing to any final deployment.
  • The PCPs successfully de-risked all the technological and the implementation aspects that had to be fleshed out at different industrial sites, to provide the Norwegian government with the necessary information / evidence to make the investment decision to go for full-scale CCS deployment.

The benefits for the companies are:

The different companies that completed the PCP successfully are commercializing their solutions. The pre-commercial procurements enabled the companies to work with demanding customers, which helped to bring the innovative solutions to the market. It also provided a first customer reference that will help them gain international recognition and win other contracts worldwide afterwards.

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Statoil and Gassnova case update 2021.pdf
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