Norway nominates five areas of Norwegian Shelf for CO2 storage

Five areas on the Norwegian Shelf have been nominated as suitable for exploration for CO2 storage reservoirs with several companies reporting their interest to the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy.

“It is very positive that several companies have displayed enthusiasm for storage of CO2 on the Norwegian shelf,” says Eva Halland, project manager and geologist in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD).

The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy wants to allow industry access to areas for future CO2 storage as well as contributing to more knowledge relating to the safe storage of the greenhouse gas.

Companies were invited to suggest areas in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea that are open for petroleum activities and were CO2 storage is unlikely to conflict with petroleum exploitation.

At the end of the year, the NPD will present an atlas of possible storage locations for CO2 in the North Sea. “We currently have good experience with storage of CO2 on the Norwegian shelf. CO2 from both the Sleipner Vest and Snøhvit fields is currently stored in subsea reservoirs,” says Halland.