Yara International ASA reported on Nov. 20 it has inked a binding commercial agreement with Norwegian CO2 transport and storage supplier Northern Lights JV DA for the shipping of CO2 from the ammonia production at Yara Sluiskil in the Netherlands to permanent storage on the Norwegian continental shelf.
Yara aims to reduce the annual CO2 emissions from the process gas by 800,000 mt at its ammonia production at Sluiskil and said the deal with Northern Lights will enable the first cross-border transportation and storage of CO2. The first tonnes of CO2 are expected to be shipped in 2025.
The two parties agreed to the main commercial terms of the agreement back in the late summer of 2022 (GM Sept. 2, 2022) and have since been firming up the final contractual details.
“Cutting 800,000 mt of CO2 in Yara Sluiskil corresponds to 0.5% of the total annual emissions (2022) in the Netherlands,” said Yara Netherlands Vice President Michael Schlaug.
Yara Sluiskil will expand its capacity to liquify 12 million mt of CO2 over the next 15 years with an estimated capex of approximately €200 million (approximately $218.6 million at current exchange rates), Schlaug said.
Northern Lights JV will ship liquified CO2 from Yara Sluiskil to Øygarden in Norway. The liquefied CO2 initially will be stored in onshore tanks at that location, prior to injection into an offshore saline aquifer via pipeline for permanent and safe storage, 2,600 meters below the seabed offshore of Øygarden. Operations will continue for 15 years.
Yara Sluiskil is one of the world’s largest ammonia and mineral fertilizer plants. The CCS project forms part of Yara’s ongoing strategic transition to decarbonize and future-proof its core production assets.
“This commercial agreement gives us the opportunity to further utilize the capacity of our storage site below the North Sea,” said Northern Lights Managing Director Børre Jacobsen. “It confirms the commercial potential for CCS and demonstrates that the market for transport and storage of CO2is evolving rapidly.”
Northern Lights JV DA is a registered, incorporated General Partnership with Shared Liability (DA) owned by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies, and is the transport and storage part of the Norwegian government’s Longship project aimed at developing a full-scale CCS value chain in Norway.