OSLO, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Five companies have applied to
build carbon dioxide (CO2) storage on the Norwegian continental
shelf, the country's oil and energy ministry said on Wednesday.
The ministry proposed in September two offshore areas, one
in the North Sea and one in the Arctic Barents Sea, for
companies interested in developing CO2 storage under the
seabed. CO2 storage is technology that enables the
capture of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and its storage
underground and away from the atmosphere.
The five companies that applied by a Dec. 9 deadline were
Shell, Equinor, Horizon Energy, Northern
Lights and Vaar Energi, the ministry said in a statement.
Northern Lights is a joint venture between Equinor, Shell
and Total, which is already developing a separate CO2
storage near Norway's largest gas field, Troll.
Vaar Energi, a Norwegian subsidiary of Italy's Eni,
last week announced it was joining a project by Equinor and
Horisont Energi to develop a CO2 storage in the Barents Sea.
"It is gratifying that the companies are showing interest in
being allocated acreage for storing CO2," Minister of Oil and
Energy Marte Mjoes Persen said.
The Norwegian government seeks to promote development of CO2
capture and storage technology as it could help the country to
reach its climate goals and support production of emissions-free
hydrogen and ammonia.
The ministry said it planned to allocate the offshore
acreage for CO2 storage in the first half of 2022.
(Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis;
Editing by Bernadette Baum)
