Presentations CLIMIT SUMMIT 2023

Here you will find all the presentations that were presented during CLIMIT SUMMIT 2023.

8 February

9 February

Minister of Petroleum and Energy Terje Asland.

We’re ready for this year’s CLIMIT SUMMIT

More than 240 people will come together in Larvik over 7–9 February. Out of these, a total of 70 experts will deliver presentations.

Six side events are also being organised in connection with the summit to demonstrate the wide-ranging interest and variety in the CCS field.

We are looking forward to getting under way and presenting lots of exciting results from CLIMIT’s project portfolio, as well as hearing from the rest of the CCS world and rounding it all off with an update from Longship stakeholders.

Streaming the main programme

The CLIMIT secretariat are delighted to announce that the main sessions in the programme will be streamed so that even more people will have the chance to follow this year’s summit. 

#CLIMITSUMMIT2023

We hope you will be active on social media and sharing details of this event. We are using the hashtag #CLIMITSUMMIT2023.

After the event, we will also be sharing presentations and recordings.

Link to programme – speakers and participants

 

“There will be no CCS industry without expertise”

“The shortage of expertise may be an obstacle to building a large and viable CCS industry. That is one reason why it is important for public authorities to continue providing resources for research and development in this field”, says Marianne Ryghaug, a member of the CLIMIT Programme Board since 2019.

“The work of the Programme Board is very rewarding. First, it gives first-hand knowledge about an exciting research field, nationally and globally that is important for reaching ambitious climate goals. Second, it is a privilege to be able to influence strategic choices for research and technology development and thereby impact Norway’s and other countries’ realization of carbon capture and storage goals. Third, but not least, the fact that the discussions we have around the table include perspectives and insights from different disciplines, professions, and sectors is both very fruitful and necessary for the realization of CCS and the breadth of the CLIMT Program Plan.


Marianne Ryghaug heads up the Centre for Energy, Climate and Environment (STS) at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at NTNU and is a member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT.

Member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT

Marianne Ryghaug (51) has a PhD in Political Science and is a Professor of Science and Technology Studies at NTNU. She leads the Centre for Energy, Climate and Environment (STS) at the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture at NTNU. Ryghaug was Co-Director of Centre for Sustable Ebnergy Studies (FME CenSES), a national centre for environmentally friendly energy research from 2009-2019. Her areas of expertise include energy and climate policy, sustainability transitions and innovation policy, and studies of users, practices and public engagement.

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

As a researcher, I directly encounter CCS-related issues in many of the projects I work on. An example: I do research on how to accelerate energy transitions in ports and sectors related to ports. Here, the development of CCS and transportation is relevant. In many projects where the aim is to create more sustainable transitions and value chains, CCS is an important solution to achieve CO2 reductions or zero emissions goals, as CCS is one of many climate solutions necessary for achieving the enormous cuts in emissions that our planet needs.     

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

Focusing the program on carbon capture research and technology development related to emissions from ‘hard to abate’ sectors, typically cement and chemical production, has been a good priority. In general, the relatively good framework conditions for research in this field have  given Norwegian technology communities an advantage internationally, providing them with significant market opportunities and forming the basis for strong climate initiatives both in Norway and around the world. The challenge now is to facilitate research at a higher TRL level, by which I mean create even more mature technologies, and thereby help to accelerate CCS activities across many different industries.   

What should CLIMIT prioritize in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

I am not a technologist, so from my perspective, the attention should not only be on improving carbon capture and storage technologies. One must focus on the entire CCS value chain and the need to realize CCS projects at the scale required to achieve significant emissions reductions locally, nationally, and globally. This depends on building infrastructure, legislation, and acceptance for CCS among those being impacted in different ways. The CLIMIT programme should therefore also support research that gives crucial in-depth knowledge on relevant societal issues pertaining to CCS.

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

The CLIMIT programme is justified by its contribution to research that develops and accelerates strong CCS projects. The number of applications is increasing, and the quality is generally very good. There is no doubt as to whether we need CLIMIT: it is the provision of sufficient resources that determines whether its aims can be met. In this context, I think it is important to highlight that shortage of competence may be an obstacle to building a large and vibrant CCS industry if not properly supported. Thus, the government should continue providing resources for research and development in this field. CLIMIT should also be able to act as a facilitator for idea development and expertise building – creating arenas for dialogue between researchers and industry across various projects. This will push CCS and the world forward!” 

“New CCS technologies must be developed close to industry”

“I don’t believe that we can just put skilled researchers into a locked room and ask them to create technologies for a fraction of the cost for a full-scale plant that needs to be built.

Development must take place close to the experiences gained from these projects, and this must be reflected in CLIMIT’s efforts.”

Kaare Helle has been a member of the CLIMIT Programme Board since 2018. “I’ve been working on CCS for many years at DNV and through this I was able to use the knowledge I had acquired while also satisfying my curiosity in technology that can be used to manage CO2. I have to admit that I don’t always understand all of the content and details of project applications we receive, and in those situations it’s great that I can rely on my experienced and highly skilled colleagues around the table. Over time, the CLIMIT programme has shown itself to be a vital tool for creating technology and solutions that are now being adopted in order to realise ambitious climate goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions from industries,” says Helle.



Kaare Helle has many years of experience with CCS at DNV and is a member of the CLIMIT Programme Board. Photo: DNV

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

“In the 17 years I’ve worked at DNV, CCS has been my most important area of work, and I’ve been involved in creating an organisation that provides industry with advice on quality assurance and safety procedures for projects. Just over two years ago I was challenged with leading a newly established investment unit for start-ups, and we are now around half-way towards our goal of having a 20-company strong portfolio. Decarbonisation is also part of our mandate, but my primary focus now is on the work for the board and coaching to help small companies with interesting technologies to succeed in creating a business out of these. I also still get asked for advice about issues related to carbon capture and storage, which has become an important business area for DNV over the last few years.

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

“If we look back, CCS was, internationally speaking, struggling between 2013 and 2019, and it was just us in Norway who ‘kept the faith’, in no small part due to CLIMIT’s research support. This has helped put Norwegian businesses in a really strong position as technology and service providers for projects aimed at realising capture and storage at full-scale, both at home and abroad. The most important contribution going forward will be to support research into cost-effective climate initiatives that will create an industry that is viable without enormous state intervention in the long term.”

“We need to remember in this context that at a global level there’s still a long way to go in reaching the 20 percent share of total emissions reductions the IPCC and the IEA have assumed can be achieved through carbon capture and storage by 2050. At DNV, we have calculated that planned and currently ongoing projects will only lead to a 4 percent reduction. That said, we believe there will be a significant up-scaling of CCS in the next five years.”

Member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT

Kaare Helle (46) has an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from NTNU and works as the Venture Director at Det Norske Veritas (DNV) and is responsible for corporate venture activities. He began at DNV in 2005 and has held many managerial positions, primarily within energy technology and innovation. Between 2015 and 2020, he led the build-up of DNV’s CCS activities. Before he began at DNV, he worked as a consultant at Norsk Sikkerhetsrevisjon.

What should CLIMIT prioritise in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

“I don’t believe that we can just put skilled researchers into a locked room and ask them to create technologies for a fraction of the cost for a full-scale plant that needs to be built. Development must take place close to the experiences gained from these projects, and this must be reflected in CLIMIT’s efforts.” Carbon capture is the biggest driver of costs and this means that the hunt for the next generation of capture technology must be a top priority.” 

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

“As far as I can tell, CLIMIT has struggled due to a relatively low flow of applications. In the wake of the Longship project, so much will depend on us increasing the number of technology developers that have strong, high-quality ideas for innovation and creativity in CCS. We must improve awareness of the CLIMIT programme to draw in a greater number of applications so that we can reject applications that don’t live up to our goals.”

“So as a general reflection, I would add that perhaps the most important thing now is that the apparatus for CCS investments is given mechanisms that will allow for more large projects to be funded in Norway. As long as there is an imbalance between the costs to industry of emitting CO2 and implementing measures that will limit emissions, the state will have to make up the difference. So, our longer-term goal should be to develop technology that makes CCS profitable for businesses. 

“We also need to support less promising projects”

“Research and development are also about discovering things and excluding ideas that are going nowhere. This means CLIMIT also has to support projects that might seem interesting to begin with, but that actually turn out to be not so promising after all. The earlier this is discovered the more unnecessary investments are avoided”

Hanne Lerche Raadal became a member of the CLIMIT Programme Board in 2019. “The work is interesting because we get fantastic insight into all the research and development going on related to carbon management, and as Board members we set out guidelines for future research efforts through proposals for revisions to the programme plan. As someone who works a lot on developing research projects, it’s also been interesting to get an insight into the organisation of and division of work between CLIMIT, Gassnova and the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy in this field.”

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

“More and more frequently! At NORSUS, we are developing knowledge and methods for sustainability in society by working with companies and the public sector in order to reduce their impact on the environment. For my part, I’ve done a lot of work on environmental documentation and optimisation of products and processes in the areas of energy and waste treatment, particularly wind energy, hydropower, biogas, and waste incineration plants. Our environmental and sustainability assessments are based on life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology, which also is relevant for CCS and CCUS value chain. For example, it can be used to find out for what conditions possible net gains of removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere, which is a technology that is still in its early stages, might be achieved. We need thorough analyses of the value chains for the new systems we want to create. These analyses need to include energy consumption and other important factors related to different environmental impacts so that we can see the entire environmental impact of the systems we are comparing, which is important for future decision processes.”

Hanne Lerche Raadal. Foto.

Hanne Lerche Raadal is the Head of Research at NORSUS and a member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT. (Photo: NORSUS).

Member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT

Hanna Lerche Raadal is a civil engineer from NTNU and with a PhD from NMBU titled ‘Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from electricity generation systems. Tracking and claiming in environmental reporting’. She began as a researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Sustainability Research (NORSUS), formerly Ostfold Research, in 1996 and since 2020, she has been Head of Research at the Institute. Raadal also holds the position of Associate Professor II at NMBU where she teaches at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management.

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

“CLIMIT’s role has been, and must continue to be, to set the innovation and development of future-oriented solutions in motion based on comprehensive documentation. The realisation of carbon capture, transport and storage through the Longship project is a good example of the CLIMIT programme’s vital supportive function. However, at the same time, CLIMIT must also be able to use funds for projects that seem interesting to begin with, but that turn out to be not so promising after all. Research and development are also about discovering things and excluding ideas that are not as beneficial as were intended. We need to figure this out as early as possible in order to avoid making unnecessary large investments. That’s why such knowledge will be useful for pushing forward an area of research that is of vital importance for the world and for humanity.” 

What should CLIMIT prioritise in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

“The latest revisions to the programme plan mean that efforts will be more focused towards technology development that will help to reduce the risks and costs of full-scale capture and storage projects that are under development. It’s a real priority given the significant emission reductions the industry has to deliver by 2030. There must also be space for research into new capture methods and business models. I also think that it’s a positive that social scientific issues related to how climate and other environmental issues should be handled are being addressed by the programme and that more attention is being given to hydrogen production combined with carbon management, DAC and the value of capturing biogenic CO2. The green transition isn’t just about technology in and of itself, but also about how we can develop good business models for carbon reduction and removal, including the use of BECCS (Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage), CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal) and similar technologies, all based on comprehensive documentation.” 

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

“CLIMIT’s role is to drive research and development that will create the technologies that Norway and the world need to make carbon capture and storage a successful instrument in the fight against climate change. We’ve come a long way, but for the programme to be successful, we need focused efforts for at least the next five years.”

“CLIMIT must bring economists and social scientists on board”

“Now that a number of large carbon capture and storage projects are getting underway both at home and abroad, research must be concentrated on learning from the processes and developing even better and more cost-effective technologies.

But I would also challenge socioeconomic research communities to contribute their knowledge about what this focus on CCS will mean for value creation in Norwegian society. 

Eystein Leren has been a member of the CLIMIT Programme Board for five years and is pleased that theoretical knowledge about how CO2 should be managed is being put into practice in industry.

“The work of the Programme Board provides a fantastic viewpoint to follow the development of carbon management technologies and full-scale CCS projects, not just in Norway, but also internationally. The Board provides professional recommendations to Gassnova, the Research Council of Norway and the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy about the strategy and direction of the Programme Plan, which is obviously interesting and getting to influence that is a meaningful experience. I would also highlight that the Board’s work is helped by good preparatory work from the secretariat, which, with regard to time spent, makes tasks manageable in an otherwise busy work day.”

Eystein Leren. Foto.

Eystein Leren has been on the CLIMIT Programme Board for five years and enjoys the challenges that come along with it.. Photo: Yara

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

“Ammonia is produced using hydrogen and nitrogen. Hydrogen used in this process is traditionally produced from natural gas, and the waste CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere. This called “grey” ammonia. As such, decarbonising ammonia has long been on the agenda for environmental reasons, but for us at Yara Clean Ammonia, the point is also to create a sustainable business from zero-emission ammonia. Because if carbon emissions from the process are captured and stored (CCS), the end product will be “blue”. To make it “green”, it needs to be produced using electrolysis and renewable energy. Our task is therefore to develop new segments in the ammonia market in addition to fertiliser, such as shipping fuel, as energy carrier in power and heat generation, and for long-distance transport of hydrogen. Across all new segments, only low and zero-emission ammonia will be used.

“In our work in developing blue and green ammonia production, we are looking at a number of CCS projects both in the North Sea and in North America. In this manner, the commencement of the Longship project is extremely important for the further development of industrial solutions that, among other things, can cover our and other operators’ needs for storage sites.”

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

“CCS represents a technology and value chain that will ensure the transition from fossil fuels to a society based on renewable energy. That’s why CLIMIT has been an important instrument for research and development both at early phases and for industrial projects. Now that CCS is being realised as an industry at full-scale, there will clearly be a need for more efficient and cost-effective technologies that support these efforts. CLIMIT will continue to be extremely relevant if the programme is primarily aimed at meeting this need. I have experienced little disagreement on the Programme Board that this should be the future strategic direction for CLIMIT.”

Member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT

Eystein Leren (59) holds an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Oslo is a graduate of the BI Norwegian Business School. He has worked for over 25 years on projects and business development within gas technology for Norsk Hydro and Yara. In 2019, Yara Clean Ammonia was established as a subsidiary of Yara International, and Leren has a central role in the development of new markets and industries for green ammonia, focusing on ship fuel and energy applications.

What should CLIMIT prioritise in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

“In principle, anything that could lead to an acceleration in the processes for investment in carbon capture and storage for industry at as low a cost as possible. In my opinion, the risks of depositing CO2 in geological formations are low, but further documentation of the safety of the reservoirs is still important to speed up CCS efforts.”

“So for some years, we on the Programme Board have both wanted and called for more research into the societal impacts of CCS, that is to say, what significance these efforts will have on value creation and employment in Norway. A limited socioeconomic analysis of Longship has been carried out. However, we need more information – not least for politicians and the general public to understand how important and significant these efforts are for the climate and our common good. It’s possible that CLIMIT’s calls for project proposals have not been clear enough to address this need. I’m therefore taking this opportunity to challenge socioeconomic research communities to develop strong project applications that provide us with the knowledge and analyses we need.”

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

“If we are successful in stimulating research and technology development based on experience from full-scale projects in Norway, Europe and the USA, the CLIMIT programme will also be able to fulfil an important mission in the years ahead. For the CCS industry, process learning will be tremendously important going forward.”

 

Horisont Energi has entered into an option agreement with Haugaland Næringspark

Horisont Energi plans to locate the land- based CO2 terminal for the Errai carbon capture and storage project to Gismarvik in Rogaland, where Haugaland Næringspark has one of Norway’s largest industrial areas.

Source: Horisont Energi (EURONEXT: HRGI)

CLIMIT has supported the CCS work at Haugaland Næringspark

The infrastructure is already in place in the area, with access to fibre, electricity, water, and sewage, and a large harbour basin with deep-sea quay ideal for the Errai project. The CO2 terminal will receive CO2 from both European and Norwegian customers, including from the planned CO2 terminal in the Port of Rotterdam.

For more informasjon about the Errai-project

 

“Need to prioritise national projects”

“I believe CLIMIT should give rather greater priority to national initiatives for capturing CO2. That means providing support for the technology development that is crucial to realising projects that are now in planning.”

Earlier this year, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy appointed Jan Gabor as a member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT, and he attended his first meeting in October. “It was both pleasant and very motivating to be invited, and I look forward to making a contribution,” says the newest member of the Board.

“I think the most interesting thing will be to get a close-up view of how the authorities and the various technical disciplines are approaching the management of CO2, and to examine the many competent applications for support for technology development. So for me, this position will involve a great deal of useful learning.”

Jan Gabor. Foto.
Jan Gabor. Photo: Mo Industripark

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

“Mo Industrial Park is now installing a pilot plant for capturing CO2, where we plan to run a test campaign over six months using flue gas from Elkem Rana and SMA Mineral. The project, which is supported by Gassnova through CLIMIT Demo, uses technology from Aker Carbon Capture, and will be the first of its kind in the world for emissions from furnaces in the metal industry. The project will provide the necessary knowledge to be able to proceed with planning a full-scale facility to capture and store CO2. The project is also looking at possible links to CCU, i.e. the use of CO2 as a raw material in industrial processes.”

“We are also working on a project to use hydrogen in connection with a new furnace being built by Celsa Armeringsstål which will phase out CO gas and reduce CO2 emissions by 60,000 tonnes per year. Replacing fossil energy with green hydrogen at the rolling mill in the industrial park puts the company on track to reach its climate goals of a 50 per cent reduction by 2030 and zero emissions by 2040.”

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

“The short answer is that CLIMIT needs to help bring about technological solutions that significantly reduce CO2 emissions. The goal of 55 per cent lower emissions by 2030 is very challenging, so we need to make best use of the funds CLIMIT has at its disposal.”

What should CLIMIT prioritise in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

“I believe CLIMIT should give rather greater priority to national initiatives. That means providing support for the technology development that is crucial to realising projects that are now in planning. It is important to identify where in these projects the technical aspects can be improved; no two emission points are exactly the same and there is a high degree of innovation and technology development in every case. CLIMIT’s role is to stimulate technology development, but in order to achieve emission reductions in the industry that make a difference, the government funding agencies must be provided with sufficient resources to ensure that oven-ready projects can actually be implemented. This is where I see the biggest gap when it comes to achieving the demanding national targets for reducing emissions.”

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

“There will be a great need to create solutions for storing CO2 that are technically appropriate for the individual major emission points in Norway. For those located by a harbour, systems for transport and storage should in principle be easier to establish than for those that are not. But in any event, the storage aspect should be central to CLIMIT for years to come. At the same time, we also need to look at solutions that can help us to establish capture facilities in all sorts of places in Norway, where offshore storage may not be an available solution.”

Member of the Programme Board of CLIMIT

Jan Gabor (57) has a master’s degree in economics and management from BI Norwegian Business School and is EVP Property Development at Mo Industrial Park. This encompasses 108 companies with around 2,400 employees. Gabor is the head of a sustainability programme which aims to turn Mo Industrial Park into a world-class green industrial park. He has expertise in oil and gas and renewable energy, and deals with marketing and business development as well as research and innovation processes.

“We must pave the way for the technologies of the future”

“CLIMIT’s role is to facilitate the adoption technologies for the realisation of carbon capture and storage at full-scale and for more efficient future solutions.”

Sveinung Hagen became a member of the Programme Committee in 2016. “The most interesting part is the discussions we have when we need to recommend profiles and directions to Gassnova, the Research Council of Norway and Norwegian authorities for projects that need CLIMIT support. I think the key to the success of CCS going forward is the commercialisation and standardisation of solutions that industries think it is in their interests to adopt, and therefore research communities must be motivated to develop useful technology for both major and minor capture projects alike. I’ve found that there is a great deal of agreement in the Programme Committee on this.”

To illustrate this point, he points out that the development of CCS technology at Heidelberg Materials’s cement factory in Brevik is the project that has received the most support from CLIMIT. “It’s technically demanding, and the contributions from CLIMIT have been vital for the realisation of the project,” he explains. 



Sveinung Hagen is an carbon storage advisor at Equinor and is a member of the CLIMIT Programme Committee.

How do you encounter CCS in your day-to-day work?

“Over the last 15 years, CCS has been my focus at Equinor. It all started back in 1996 when the company began capturing and injecting CO2 in connection with gas production in the Sleipner gas field with exceptionally good results and with a hope of making CCS a commercially viable focus area. My role was to lead geological research and exploration until I became an advisor for the unit working on developing a storage market two years ago. Last year, Equinor announced its ambition to store 15-30 million tons of CO2 per year before 2035, primarily in the North Sea basin.”

What do you think is CLIMIT’s most important contribution to the green transformation?

“CLIMIT’s role is to facilitate the adoption technologies for the realisation of carbon capture and storage at full-scale and for more efficient future solutions.” Both the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the IEA have been clear that we cannot achieve our climate goals without decarbonising industry and energy production and adopting CDR (Carbon Dioxide Removal) technologies. But if we are to succeed, we need far more intensive research and development of new technology, which is where CLIMIT comes in.”

“From my point of view, CLIMIT has a key role in supporting CCS research from a societal perspective. We need to know more about public attitudes towards CCS as a phenomenon and a part of the fight against climate change, as well as about employment and value creation opportunities. With this knowledge available, it will be easier to prevent any conflicts around these projects and to improve the regulatory framework for the safety of carbon storage in geological formations, for example.”

Member of the CLIMIT Programme Committee

Sveinung Hagen has a PhD in Geology from the Arctic University of Norway (UiT) and works as a carbon storage advisor at Equinor. He began his career there at the Equinor offices in Harstad in 1999. After eight years working on projects in exploration and extraction of oil on the Norwegian Continental Shelf and in the Middle East, he switched to CCS in 2007 when the then Statoil merged with the Norsk Hydro oil and gas division. He was tasked with researching the field of carbon storage integrity to verify the safety of storage in geological formations before he moved to his current position as an advisor for Equinor in its CCS unit in 2020.

What should CLIMIT prioritise in terms of technology development in the future – where are the gaps?

“CLIMIT must continue to push research and development of technologies that reduce the costs of CCS. I also think it’s important for researchers to thoroughly examine how a growing CCS industry can make use of infrastructure left behind by oil and gas industries. This is also necessary to build trust in the technology, and research communities play an important role here as independent operators.

What needs do you see for the CLIMIT programme over the next five years?

“Loads of great things have happened in the last few years when it comes to CCS. But it’s important to stress that we still have some way to go in terms of the capture, transport and storage of industry emissions and in developing technologies that will remove CO2 and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. That’s to say, we need to keep focussing on research and innovation that will provide us with new CCS tools both nationally and through international partnerships, particularly with the EU. I also think we need projects that examine societal issues, including business models that are important for politicians, authorities and the general public.”

Norwegian experts contribute to international CCS standards

A number of full-scale CCS projects are in development, not only in Norway, but also in the rest of Europe, North America and Asia. International standards will help reduce the barriers and risks these projects have to negotiate on their path to become operational.

Since 2011, Standard Norway and Norwegian experts from industry, research institutions and authorities have participated in the development of international standards for CCS. The work has been carried out in working groups established by the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) in Technical Committee 265 (ISO/TC-265).  Industry and authorities in countries with CCS activities benefit from such standards as they contribute to reduce risks and costs, and close gaps in regulations. This lowers the barriers to market entry, especially for smaller companies.

For countries with CCS experience, this work helps to close gaps in the regulations, identify best practice, and allows commercial contracts to be assembled of standardized documents. For countries that do not yet have a regulatory framework for CCS, ISO standards can serve as building blocks for such a framework.

Large participation. Photo: Standard Norge

Norway plays an active role

Ingvild Ombudstvedt is chair of the Norwegian ISO committee for CCS and CO2-EOR. She also participates in the development of technical reports and standards as an expert in various working groups in ISO/TC-265, before the same reports and standards are subjected to voting for approval in the committees of Norway and other nations that are also members of ISO/TC-265.

“My work is also about project management. We have to ensure that all participating countries are heard in order to build consensus in the working groups. What we publish represents the latest in science and technology, and is unencumbered by patented rights, legal obstacles and other types of barriers to use. A prerequisite for this is that everyone is in agreement,” explains Ombudstvedt.

Active participation in ISO/TC-265 has allowed Norwegian experts to share Norwegian experience and knowledge in CCS, but also to secure Norwegian interests in the development of standards. Experiences from the Sleipner and Snøhvit gas fields, as well as full-scale projects, regulation development, and research and development from Norway, have proven invaluable. 

“This really has been a great platform for Norwegian industry and all other operators who have participated to show that Norway is a world leader in CCS.” 

Ingvild Ombudstvedt.

Important cooperation

An important outcome that the Norwegian committee contributed to is the publication of twelve documents in the form of standards and technical reports. The publications are available on the ISO website, where they can be purchased and downloaded. In Norway, they can be purchased and downloaded from the Standards Norway website.

This ISO cooperation has also laid the groundwork for further building international cooperation and knowledge sharing. Research communities that download the standards will get access to this knowledge. Thanks to negotiations and the creation of standards and the technical reports, there has also been extensive knowledge sharing between the experts participating in the working groups. As of today, there are 24 countries involved in this work from all over the world, from all parts of the value chain and from a broad range of disciplines and operators.

“I believe that common standards can contribute to creating a strong basis for international cooperation,” says Ingvild Ombudstvedt. “Operators can use these standards to streamline the value chain. And then, it won’t matter whether the CO2 streams come from Poland, the Netherlands or Norway because operators can use the same standards across the entire value chain.”

CLIMIT support

Standards Norway and other experts from Norway received support from CLIMIT to participate in these international standardisation efforts.

“We have been totally dependent on these financial contributions. Without them, we would not have been able to play the really active role that we’ve wanted to. Support from CLIMIT has also been invaluable and provided our experts with a solid foundation here in Norway,” says Ombudstvedt.

“Politics and, at times, conflicting interests between participating countries and operators come part and parcel with these sorts of negotiations. We do, however, have a shared goal and interest in creating something here and in contributing to the advancement of a global CCS industry, which has really helped negotiations move along.”