Important contracts in place in the Northern Lights project

January 28, 2021 08:01 CET | Last modified January 28, 2021 08:34 CET
Illustration of the Northern Lights project

The energy transition requires new solutions to cut emissions from industry sources in Norway and Europe. With the contract awards to Subsea 7 Norway and Aibel we have taken new and important steps to realise the Northern Lights project.

“The new contracts in the Northern Lights project will create important activity for the supplier industry. Most contracts are now in place, and we look forward to working together with the selected suppliers to realise this pioneering project,” says Peggy Krantz-Underland, Equinor’s chief procurement officer.

Subsea 7 has won an EPCI (engineering, procurement, construction and installation) contract for pipelaying and subsea installations. The contract value is estimated at about NOK 500 million.

The supplier will fabricate and lay a 100 km long pipeline that will transport CO2 from the intermediate storage site at Energiparken in Øygarden to the injection well in the North Sea.

Subsea 7 will also install a 36 km long umbilical that will connect the injection well to the Oseberg field from which the subsea injection facilities will be operated.

Project management and engineering will be delivered by Subsea 7’s office at Forus, while fabrication of pipes will be done at the Vigra spool base near Ålesund. The contract is expected to result in approximately 250 man-years during the project’s life. Planning of the work will start immediately, and the main offshore operations are scheduled to be carried out during 2022-2023.

Photos of Sverre Overå and Peggy Krantz-Underland
Sverre Overå (left), project director of Northern Lights, and Peggy Krantz-Underland, Equinor’s chief procurement officer.

Aibel has been awarded an EPCI contract for the Northern Lights subsea control system located on the Oseberg A platform. The contract is awarded as a call-off against the existing Oseberg portfolio agreement signed in July 2020. The estimated value of the assignment is about NOK 140 million.

The scope of work includes all necessary upgrades on the Oseberg A platform to pull in and operate the umbilical system that will connect the platform and the Northern Lights subsea facilities.

Project management and engineering will be performed at Aibel’s offices in Bergen and Stavanger, and prefabrication will take place at the Haugesund yard. The project will contribute with about 60 man-years for Aibel. The work will start in January 2021 and is planned to be completed late 2023.

“The Northern Lights project is the first of its kind offering a solution to cut emissions from industrial sources in Norway and Europe. Work has started at the site and with these two important contracts in place, we are ensuring that the project progresses according to plan in order to deliver a key part of the important Longship project,” says Sverre Overå, project director of Northern Lights.

Related pages

Find out more about Northern Lights
Equinor awarding Northern Lights contracts (17 Dec 2020)
Preparing the onshore facilities for the Northern Lights project (20 Oct 2020)
Photo of site preparation for the Northern Lights project
Site preparation for the Northern Lights project started on 4 January. Most contracts are now in place to realise this pioneering project.

Facts about Northern Lights

  • The Northern Lights project is part of the Norwegian full-scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) project “Langskip” (Longship), supported by the Norwegian government. The project will initially include capture of CO2 from Norwegian industrial capture sources. The Northern Lights project comprises transportation, receipt and permanent storage of CO2 in a reservoir in the northern North Sea.
  • The funding for the project was approved by the Norwegian Parliament on 14 December 2020. A white paper concerning “Langskip” (Longship) will be debated in January 2021. The Plan for Development and Operation will be approved after this debate.
  • Initially, Northern Lights includes capacity to transport, inject and store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Once the CO2 is captured onshore, it will be transported by newly designed ships, injected and permanently stored 2,600 meters below the seabed of the North Sea.
  • The facilities are scheduled to be operational in 2024.
  • The CO2 receiving terminal will be located at the premises of Energiparken industrial area in the municipality of Øygarden in Western Norway.
  • Exploitation licence EL001 "Aurora" was awarded in January 2019.
  • In March 2020 the Eos confirmation well was successfully drilled and completed, confirming the reservoir characteristics and storage capacity.
  • Plans exist to increase the capacity to 5 million tonnes per year through additional phases of development and an increasing customer base.