The first volumes of CO₂ have successfully traversed the 100-kilometre pipeline and have been injected into the Aurora reservoir, located 2,600 metres beneath the seabed of the Norwegian North Sea.
Tim Heijn, managing director of Northern Lights JV, expressed enthusiasm about this significant milestone, stating, “We have injected and stored the very first CO₂ safely in the reservoir. Our ships, facilities, and wells are now in operation.”
Throughout the remainder of 2025, Northern Lights will transport and store CO₂ from Norway, with additional volumes from Denmark and the Netherlands anticipated to be integrated in 2026. Northern Lights JV operates as a registered General Partnership with Shared Liability (DA), owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies, and Shell.
In March, Northern Lights made a final investment decision to expand its operations, which will increase its transport and storage capacity from 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year to a minimum of 5 million tonnes per year. This expansion follows the signing of a commercial agreement with Stockholm Exergi and is supported by a grant from the Connecting Europe Facility for Energy (CEF Energy) funding scheme.
The expansion plan capitalises on existing infrastructure and will include the addition of onshore storage tanks, pumps, a new jetty, injection wells, and more CO₂ transport ships to facilitate an increased injection rate and volume.
Tim Heijn remarked on the progress, saying, “We are excited to continue building additional capacity following the positive investment decision for the second phase.”
For more information visit www.norlights.com
