Ineos, the day-to-day operator of Greensand Future, and its partners Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden, announced the final investment decision (FID) to store carbon dioxide from Danish emitters in a depleted oil field in the Danish North Sea.
With the aim of initiating storage operations into the Ineos-operated Nini field in the Danish North Sea at the end of 2025 or early 2026, Greensand Future will become the EU’s first operational CO2 storage facility. The FID paves the way for expected investments of more than $150 million across the Greensand carbon capture and storage (CCS) value chain to scale storage capacity.
“This is a breakthrough for carbon capture and storage,” said Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of Ineos. “Greensand Future will be the first CO2 storage facility in operation in the EU, supporting both Danish and EU’s climate objectives.”
Ratcliffe added, “Greensand carbon storage is a far better way to decarbonize Europe than deindustrialize. That just moves the problem elsewhere, doesn’t solve it, and destroys jobs. Our investment in Greensand helps secure a sustainable future for both the planet and the economy.”
Greensand Future is a full industrial CCS value chain built on a scalable platform. This platform allows for the gradual expansion of storage capacity as CO2 volumes increase. It is directly applicable to other onshore and offshore storage projects, contributing to the much-needed global acceleration of CCS deployment.
“With Greensand Future and the establishment of the full value chain, we are sending an important message to the Danish and European emitters currently considering large-scale capture projects, that it can be done,” said Mads Gade, head of Denmark for Ineos.
Greensand Future aims to safely capture and permanently store 400,000 tonnes of CO2 each year as a start, allowing for the gradual expansion of storage capacity toward 2030 as CO2 volumes increase, with a potential to store up to 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
The European Commission has estimated that the European Union will need to establish a carbon storage capacity of 250 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2040 to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. CCS is also considered a key technology in reaching the Danish 2045 net-zero targets.
The CO2 for the first phase of Greensand Future will be captured and liquified at Danish biomethane production plants, transported to the port of Esbjerg, and then shipped by Royal Wagenborg to the Nini field in the Danish North Sea for storage.
On 8 March 2023, the Ineos-led pilot Project Greensand conducted the world’s first cross-border offshore CO2 storage intended to mitigate climate change.
“Last year, we were the first in the world to succeed in developing a value chain for safe and efficient capture, transport, and storage of CO2 across national borders,” Gade said. “Now, we are proud to take the next step, building on the learnings from the pilot and aiming to deliver a fully operational commercial project by end 2025/early 2026”.
The results of Project Greensand have been verified by DNV, the independent and provider of risk, verification, and standardization services. The thorough technical verification ensures that the stored CO2 remains safely and permanently in the closed Nini West reservoir 1800 m below the North Sea seabed, as expected.
“It is documented and independently verified that Greensand has a well-functioning storage, where large amounts of CO2 that would otherwise have been emitted into the atmosphere can be stored,” Gade said.