A new milestone in carbon capture has been reached as TotalEnergies, Equinor and Shell officially inaugurated the Northern Lights project in Norway, the world’s first open-access CO₂ transport and storage network. The first shipment of captured carbon dioxide from Heidelberg Materials’ cement plant in Brevik was injected more than 2,600 meters beneath the seabed off western Norway, marking the start of Phase One with a storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes annually—already fully booked by European industrial clients.
Expansion plans are underway, with Phase Two set to increase capacity to over five million tonnes per year by 2028. Backed by Norway’s Longship initiative and contracts with major companies across Europe, the project is seen as a blueprint for reducing emissions in hard-to-abate sectors. However, experts caution that large-scale success will hinge on sustained investment, stronger policy frameworks, and competitive carbon pricing.