The First of Its Kind in the World

Northern Lights is making history. As part of Norway’s Longship project, it has established the world’s first full-scale, open-source value chain for carbon capture and storage (CCS) – from CO₂ reception to permanent geological storage. In September last year, the terminal in Øygarden was declared ready for business. With all regulatory approvals and injection permits now secured, the project is set to receive its first CO₂ shipment from Heidelberg Materials. The ships Pioneer and Pathfinder are ready for operations.

Of Great Importance for the Industry

Photo: Illustration Northern Lights phase 2

More than 13,000 visitors have already toured the facility in Øygarden, underscoring the project’s global significance. “It’s the first complete CCS value chain of its kind in the world,” says Imran Abdul-Majid, Technical Manager for Northern Lights Joint Venture. “Others exist, but none with this infrastructure, scale, and operational readiness. This is of great importance for the whole CCS industry.”

Northern Lights is also marking a commercial breakthrough. While Phase 1 is funded through Longship, Phase 2 has taken a commercial-based investment decision in Q2 2025. “Phase 1 is sold out, with Heidelberg, Hafslund, Celcio, Ørsted and Yara on board. Phase 2 will now commence construction, and Stockholm Exergi is the first customer

The next years will focus on learning, expanding, and scaling:

• Operating and optimizing Phase 1
• Constructing Phase 2
• Industrializing the value chain with more clients and vessels

Conference attendees at UTC 2025 will get a unique opportunity to visit the site during the Day 0 field trip, exploring the facility by sea and through technical presentations. “We’ve shown it’s possible to build this,” Imran Abdul-Majid says. “Now we need to prove it’s commercially viable – and share what we learn, so the next projects can be faster, cheaper, and better.”

As Northern Lights enters its operational phase, it signals not only the start of CO₂ storage in Norway, but potentially the birth of a new industry.

Be sure to catch Imran Abdul-Majid on Day 2 of UTC, where he will present the scaling success of Northern Lights’ safe and cost-effective solutions. On Day 1, the CCS session will delve further into these themes, including a strategic presentation by Ragnar Stokke on how CCS can evolve within existing offshore frameworks. See the full agenda here: https://www.utc.no/agenda-day-2-2025/

More on this at Verftet in Bergen 10th – 12th of June.