* Equinor, Shell, Total agree to develop CCS project
* Northern Lights project set to cost $675 mln
* CCS is seen as key for meeting climate goals
(Recasts, updates throughout)
By Ron Bousso and Victoria Klesty
LONDON/OSLO, May 15 (Reuters) - A group of European energy
companies led by Norway's Equinor agreed on Friday to
develop jointly a facility beneath the North Sea to store carbon
dioxide storage, a technology that helps in the fight against
climate change.
The Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS)
project, a partnership with Royal Dutch Shell and Total
, is expected to cost 6.9 billion Norwegian crowns
($675.23 million), Equinor said in a statement.
The project is still subject to final approval by Norwegian
authorities.
CCS technology includes pumping heat-trapping carbon dioxide
from the air and injecting it into underground storage, and in
some cases re-using it for industrial purposes.
The Northern Lights project's first phase will include
developing capacity to transport, inject and store up to 1.5
million tonnes of CO2 per year some 2,500 metres below the
seabed.
Equinor in September signed a number of non-binding
agreements with major European industrial groups including the
world's leading steel producer ArcelorMittal to develop
infrastructure to supply CO2 to the Northern Lights.
The United Nation's Intergovernmental panel on climate
change has said CCS will be needed to help avoid the most
devastating effects of climate change and prevent global
temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius from
pre-industrial levels by the end of the century.
Oil and gas companies face one of the biggest downturns in
the sector's history following a sharp drop in oil consumption
due to the novel coronavirus.
The approval of the project comes after Equinor, Shell and
Total all set out in recent months ambitions to sharply reduce
carbon emissions by 2050 in order to meet the 2015 Paris climate
agreement.
It is also a sign that a major industrial project should go
ahead in Norway, which like other European nations is trying to
help its economy recover from the impact of the coronavirus and
develop in a greener way.
($1 = 10.2188 Norwegian crowns)
(Reporting by Victoria Klesty, editing by Louise Heavens and
Barbara Lewis)
