The Danish Energy Agency will award 197 million DKK (€26 million) to the INEOS-led consortium backing Project Greensand for carbon capture and storage in the North Sea.
The project entails transporting CO2 by ship to the Nini West reservoir off Denmark and injecting it via the offshore wellhead platform. The CO2 will be stored in depleted oil and gas sandstone reservoirs 1500m beneath the seabed and existing infrastructure will be repurposed from oil and gas production to CO2 injection.
"We are very pleased and thankful for the trust that has been shown to the entire consortium behind Project Greensand. Carbon capture storage is one of the steps needed to reach the ambitious climate goals in Denmark, and we as a consortium are very proud to be allowed to contribute to that through this project,” said David Bucknall, CEO INEOS Energy.
The award is based on a political decision by The Danish Government and a broad majority of political parties in December 2020 to allocate a total of DKK 197 million earmarked for the development and demonstration of CO2 storage in the North Sea, INEOS said.
“The entire consortium has been waiting in the starting block and we are ready to start working on the project so we can help reach the ambitious climate ambitions as soon as possible,” said Mads Gade, Head of INEOS Energy, Denmark.
“This is a huge achievement and a big step towards the net zero ambition for INEOS”, said David Bucknall, CEO of INEOS Energy.
The storage potential in Project Greensand is ½-1 million ton of CO2 per year from 2025, increasing to 4-8 million tons of CO2 per year by 2030. The Greensand Area could account for all of the CO2 storage proposed in the Danish Climate Program, INEOS said.
The Greensand project has three phases: Appraisal, Pilot (Proof of concept) and Full project execution. The completed Appraisal phase had field owners INEOS, and Wintershall Dea, plus consortium members Maersk Drilling and Danish Government-backed GEUS.
The project recently cleared a major hurdle as DNV GL independently certified that the Nini West field is conceptually suitable for injecting 0.45 million tons CO2 per year per well for a 10-year period, and that the subsea reservoir can safely contain the CO2.
Pilot phase (Proof of concept) planning is now getting underway with potentially starting around Q4 2021 subject to the implementation of the agreements outlined in the Danish North Sea Agreement of Dec. 2020.
The FID for full-scale project will start after proof of concept, planned FID in second half 2023, and will have an estimated delivery duration of around 24 months after which carbon storage could be operational from around 2025.