Aker Solutions Awarded Northern Lights Contract

Aker Solutions has secured its first contract on Northern Lights, a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project initiated by Equinor with partners Shell and Total. The aim is to develop the world's first storage facility capable of receiving CO2 from various industrial sources.

The Northern Lights project consists of a CO2 receiving terminal, an offshore pipeline, injection and CO2 storage. Aker Solutions will deliver equipment for the subsea infrastructure for an early well development as a call-off from the Equinor framework agreement awarded to the company in December 2017.

"Carbon capture and storage plays an essential role in the industry’s efforts to contribute to achievement of the Paris climate goals," said Luis Araujo, chief executive officer of Aker Solutions. "We will leverage our extensive experience with CCS technologies on this project in our joint effort to reduce emissions."

The Norwegian carbon capture and storage demonstration project will be based on capture of CO2 from two possible capture sites; Fortum Oslo Varme’s waste-to-energy facility in Oslo and Norcem’s cement factory in Brevik, where Aker Solutions is already working on the front-end engineering and design of a carbon capture plant.

Northern Lights illustration (Photo: Equinor)

The captured CO2 liquid will be transported by ship from the capture sites to a new CO2 receiving terminal at Naturgassparken in Øygarden, outside Bergen. The CO2 will then be injected into a suitable offshore geological storage complex via subsea injection wells and an offshore pipeline from the CO2 receiving terminal.

The order was booked in the fourth quarter of 2018.