Norwegian FSRU player Hoegh LNG and compatriot oil and gas firm Aker BP have entered a strategic partnership to develop a carbon capture and storage (CCS) offering for industrial CO2 emitters in Northern Europe.
According to a statement by Hoegh LNG, the agreement combines the companies’ respective strengths, expertize, and technologies to establish a “strong” value chain for CCS on the Norwegian Continental Shelf that includes gathering, transporting, and securely injecting CO2 for permanent storage in subsea reservoirs.
As part of the technical development, Hoegh LNG will spearhead the further development of their concept of floating CO2 storage units (FCSO) enabling purification and aggregating CO2 from multiple emitters in key export hubs.
Such units will make it possible to offer cost efficient solutions also to smaller emitters that would otherwise not be able to develop solutions on their own, Hoegh LNG said.
The liquefied CO2 will be transported by CO2 shuttle tankers at low pressure that results in larger transportation capacity and lower CO2 unit cost due to scale, it said.
Aker BP will lead the development of offshore injection facilities and identify suitable subsea reservoirs for CO2 storage, the firm said.
“One-stop shop CCS value chain”
Hoegh LNG and Aker BP will work together to unlock potential new business opportunities for CO2 transportation and storage solutions, within the Norwegian Continental Shelf, for CO2 captured from multiple identified industrial emitters in North-West Europe, the statement said.
Erik Nyheim, CEO of Hoegh LNG, said that the company welcomes the opportunity to join forces with Aker BP and deliver a “large scale, one-stop shop CCS value chain to industrial emitters before 2030.”
“We expect CCS to play a key role in the transition to a low-carbon energy future. This partnership reflects our ambition to advancing CCS solutions by combining Aker BP’s strengths in subsurface understanding and large-scale project development with Hoegh LNG’s technical expertize in the LNG sector,” Karl Johnny Hersvik, CEO of Aker BP, said.