INEOS cross-border CCS storage project completes ‘successful’ pilot phase

INEOS has completed the pilot phase of its European cross-border carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, which has transported CO2 from Belgium to the North Sea.

Project Greensand comprises of a consortium of 23 Danish and international companies, startups, and research institutes aiming to store up to 1.5m t/y of CO2 in the Danish North Sea by 2026, and a further 8m t/y by 2030.

Safe storage

In 2021, the pilot project was launched from the INEOS Oxide factory in Belgium, where CO2 was captured, liquified, and shipped in containers to be stored in sandstone in a reservoir in Nini West, a depleted oil field 1,800m below the North Sea seabed.

The results are now in from the pilot, with the international maritime classification society DNV verifying that CO2 can safely and permanently be stored in the Nini West reservoir.

Mads Gade, the country manager at INEOS Denmark, said: “We now have documentation that we have a well-functioning storage for CO2 in the North Sea subsoil, where large amounts of CO2 that would otherwise have been emitted into the atmosphere can be safely and permanently stored.”

CCS in Denmark

INEOS has applied for approval to develop a large-scale CO2 storage facility in Denmark, along with partners Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden.

The next phase of the project will involve specialist ships carrying up to 1.5m t/y of CO2 to the Nini Main field. The CO2 will be transferred via a pumping system to a platform at Nini, before being pumped into the sandstone reservoirs through new CO2 injection wells.

By 2030, Project Greensand will expand beyond Nini to the neighbouring Siri oil field, where 8m t/y of CO2 is expected to be stored.

INEOS, Harbour Energy, and Nordsøfonden are also looking at the possibility of CCS on land in Denmark, with the Danish government awarding exploration licences to the companies to explore viable areas in Jutland in the Gassum reservoir.

INEOS is aiming to begin CO2 storage in the Danish North Sea by the end of next year.