Agreement clears way for Europe’s first CO2 storage trial in North Sea

An agreement between Belgian and Danish governments advances the INEOS- and Wintershall-led Greensand project and allows Europe’s first ever trial of carbon dioxide (CO₂) storage (CCS) in the North Sea be carried out later this year.

INEOS will capture CO₂ from its plant at Zwijndrecht, Belgium, to be shipped via the port of Antwerp to its Nini West oil platform 200 km west of the coast of Denmark where it will be injected as a liquid into a sandstone reservoir 1,800 m beneath the seabed of the Danish North Sea.

Currently, there is no captured CO₂ in Denmark suitable for storage in connection with the demonstration phase of Greensand. However, the new agreement allows for transport of captured CO2 from INEOS in Belgium to Greensand's storage locations in the North Sea, INEOS said.

Greensand brings together a consortium of 23 companies, research centers, institutions, and logistics partners with a goal to store 1.5 million tonnes/year (tpy) of CO₂ by 2025 and up to 8 million tpy of CO₂ by 2030 (OGJ Online, Aug. 17, 2021).

“INEOS Oxide has built on extensive experience in capturing CO2 emissions from its ethylene oxide process,” said Roel De Vil, site manager at INEOS Oxide in Zwijndrecht. “Over the past 12 years, we have worked in collaboration with two other industrial partners to capture, purify and liquefy CO₂ on the site. Thanks to our expertise, we can supply CO₂ that can be used for the pilot project. In addition to our role in the Greensand consortium, INEOS will also be the first Belgian company to store CO₂ in the Danish North Sea under the agreement,” he said.