Norway’s government has received applications from five companies related to two areas on the Norwegian continental shelf to be allocated for the injection and storage of CO2.

After being approached by several different players expressing a desire to be allocated areas for CO2 storage and, as part of its push to facilitate more Norwegian projects for CO2 management, the country’s Ministry of Petroleum and Energy announced the two areas for applications related to injection and storage of CO2 on the NCS on 10 September 2021.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has advised the ministry in connection with the application process for these two areas, one of which is in the North Sea and the other in the Barents Sea.

Following the expiration of the application deadline on 9 December, the ministry revealed on Wednesday it had received applications from Shell, Equinor, Horisont Energi, Northern Lights JV, and Vår Energi.

As previously reported, Horisont Energi submitted its application for a license to establish the Polaris CO2 storage facility off the coast of Finnmark. The purpose is to establish storage for CO2 that is captured during the large-scale production of clean ammonia at the planned Barents Blue plant in Hammerfest.

Northern Lights is a partnership between Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies and is a major part of the full-scale CCS initiative that the Norwegian government calls Longship/Langskip.

The ministry will now process the received applications and allocate the areas during the first half of 2022.

Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Marte Mjøs Persen, emphasised the importance of these companies showing an interest in storing CO2 but also underlined opportunities it provides to succeed in the production of profitable hydrogen or ammonia.