The EFTA Surveillance Authority (ESA) has issued an opinion on the draft permit from the Norwegian Environment Agency to Northern Lights for the injection and geological storage of CO2.

The Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Directive requires the EEA EFTA States to make CO2 storage permit applications available to ESA within one month of receipt. They also need to provide ESA with draft storage permits and any other related material that the competent authority has taken into consideration to decide on the award of a permit. ESA may within four months issue a non-binding opinion on the received draft permit, to ensure consistency in the implementation of the CCS Directive requirements across the European Economic Area.

The draft permit concerns a project from the company Northern Lights to inject and permanently store CO2 in the northern part of the North Sea. The CO2 will be stored in a geological formation located at 2 600 - 2 700 meters below the seabed.

The project is one of Europe’s first full-scale CCS projects and forms part of Norway’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The CO2 will be sourced from industrial capture facilities in Norway and Europe and delivered to an intermediary onshore terminal at Energiparken in Øygarden on the west-coast of Norway. From this terminal, the CO2 will be transported offshore via pipelines and injected into the subsea storage site.

The draft permit authorises the storage of up to 37.5 million tonnes (Mt) of CO₂ over 25 years, with an annual limit of 1.5 Mt.

ESA has issued its opinion on the draft permit, received in December 2024, for Northern Lights' CO₂ storage project. Overall, it finds that the technical aspects are well-documented and comply with the CCS Directive’s requirements. ESA has reflected considerations on the delimitation of the storage complex and on the financial security requirements and invites the Norwegian Environment Agency to address them in its final permit.

The Norwegian Environment Agency has made public the draft permit on which ESA based its opinion. It will also finalise the draft permit and state its reasons in case it departs from ESA’s opinion.

Read ESA’s decision here.

[Photo by Northern Lights]

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