Oil firm Rex International's subsidiary Lime Petroleum has entered into an agreement with Nautilus Carbon Services AS to participate in the first phase of a larger project involving several other joint-industry project partners, which aims to secure a storage site in the Norwegian Continental Shelf where CO2 can be injected and permanently stored.
Phase I of the project will include research and development work to outline and describe the methodology and possible locations for a CO2 storage site. Upon completion, a decision will then be made to initiate Phase II, the goal of which is to secure the award of an exploitation licence on the Norwegian Continental Shelf with an application to the authorities, Rex said.
Lars Hübert, Chief Executive Officer of Lime Petroleum, said, “With Lime Petroleum's acquisition of 33.84 percent interest in the producing Brage Field, it is timely and opportune that Lime Petroleum participates in such a project that will progress Lime Petroleum's ESG objectives and help the company gain a foothold in the emerging CCS value chain.”
According to International Association of Oil & Gas Producers, there are currently 51 existing and operational Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS) facilities in Europe with a target of 50 MTons/year in 2030. Ultra-high CO2 injection and storage rates are key to meet the Net Zero 2050 goals. According to the Net Zero goals (IEA, 2021), the global capture needs to be around 2 GTons/year in 2030, reaching nearly 6 GTons/year in 2040 and in 2050 the total captured CO2 is 7.6 GTons/year.