Energy transition infrastructure company CapeOmega is teaming with UK-based oil and gas producer Neptune Energy on a new cross-border carbon capture and storage project.
The new venture named Noordkaap would use liquefied CO2 carriers to ship volumes from northern Europe to offshore reservoirs in the North Sea and terminals.
Under an initial phase, the new partners have signed a letter of intent with trader RWE under which they will assess the shipment of green CO2 from RWE’s biomass facility at Eemshaven in the Netherlands for offshore storage in the Dutch North Sea.
CapeOmega project leader for CCS on commercial Erick Larson told TradeWinds the project would require “multiple vessels” that would be needed as newbuildings as there is no existing tonnage for this type of business. But their number and capacities will depend on the location of the reservoirs and injection rates and configurations.
NYK and the Knutsen Group joint venture on LCO2, Knutsen NYK Carbon Carriers, is the shipping partner of CapeOmega.
Under Noordkaap, CapeOmega and Neptune Energy plan to start first operations in 2028 and have submitted the business to the European Union as a project of mutual interest. If the application is successful, this would give access to accelerated permitting and funding under the EU’s Connecting Europe Facility For Energy programme.
The partners said the overall objective of NoordKaap is to provide cost-effective, scalable infrastructure solutions to facilitate large-scale, flexible CO2 transport and storage from multiple industrial emitters clusters, where ship transport is the primary or earliest available export option.
In the northern Dutch sector, Larson said CO2 production stacks up at around 12 to 15 million tonnes per annum.
The pair will also examine opportunities for industrial clusters in Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia and northern France and would provide access to CO2 subsurface storage sites offshore the Netherlands and Norway.
CapeOmega chief executive Evy Glorstad said: “CapeOmega aims to support the value chain with the infrastructure needed to safely and successfully transport and store CO2. NoordKaap would enable us to use our position and experience in pipeline, terminal, shipping and offshore licence ownership to support CCS and decarbonisation.”
Neptune Energy managing director Lex de Groot added: “ …we know access to pipelines will be limited for some, so we are focusing on both types of transport to offshore storage facilities: piping and shipping.”
RWE Generation chief executive Roger Miesen said: “As RWE, we are currently assessing the possibility to ship and store green CO2 from our biomass Eemshaven plant to offshore storage in the Dutch North Sea, resulting in negative emissions. Our ambition is to make this happen in 2030.”
