ANPThe first borehole under the sea wall on the Maasvlakte is being made
NOS News•today, 5:59 PM•Adjusted today, 7:04 PM
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Rob Coster
Economics reporter
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Rob Coster
Economics reporter
After years of discussion, work is being done for the first time on the capture and storage of CO2 from industry. In two years, a large part of the emissions from Shell, Exxon, Air Products and Air Liquide will have to be stored in an empty gas field under the North Sea.
It is the start of a much larger project in which CO2 from companies throughout the Netherlands and beyond is kept out of the air via the port of Rotterdam. This technology, also known as CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage), should achieve approximately half of the industry’s climate goals in 2030.
A long line of pipes is already waiting at the end of the Second Maasvlakte and ends at the construction site on the sea dike. As of today, the CO2 pipeline will be guided through the sea wall there with a drilling rig.
For a while, the project seemed to founder on the nitrogen debate, when the Council of State refused the building permit. But with some adjustments to the permit application and an electric drilling rig, construction can now start. The Netherlands is thus embarking on an effective, but also controversial, method to significantly reduce CO2 emissions.
How does CO2 storage under the North Sea work? NOS economics reporter Rob Koster explains:
In this way, CO2 is captured and stored under the North Sea
For Greenpeace, the main reason for leaving the Climate Agreement negotiations in 2019 was the large share of CCS in the climate goals for industry in the Netherlands. CCS gives polluting companies the opportunity to postpone ‘real’ sustainability and, among other things, to maintain refineries, is the reasoning of the environmental organization.
CCS controversial and necessary
But CCS is necessary to ensure that the average temperature does not rise by more than 1.5 degrees, say Nature & Environment and the United Nations, among others. That is also the reason that Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) participates in CCS projects on behalf of the state.
“By 2030, we must emit 55 percent less CO2 into the atmosphere. To achieve that goal, it is essential to capture and store CO2 in empty gas fields under the North Sea,” says Berte Simons, director of CO2 storage at EBN.
CCS is effective, but it is also a temporary and therefore expensive solution. Participating companies that have their CO2 captured and stored receive a subsidy from the so-called SDE++ pot. An amount of two billion euros has been reserved for Porthos.
Exactly how much will be paid out depends on the price of CO2 rights in the coming years. The higher the price, the less subsidy is needed.
NOS
The Court of Audit was recently constructively critical of the Porthos project. This is mainly because the government hardly benefits financially from the proceeds, but is responsible for any setbacks. This must be different for subsequent projects, says Minister Jetten for Climate and Energy.
Much bigger project
Porthos is just the beginning of the Dutch ambitions for CCS. Work is underway on a much larger project in which CO2 from companies from all over the Netherlands, but also beyond, is transported 200 kilometers into the North Sea via Rotterdam.
More than sixty kilometers northwest of Den Helder, it must then be injected via a platform into an empty gas field under the seabed. This concerns the so-called Aramis project of Gasunie, Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN), TotalEnergies and Shell.
NOS
The parties involved expect to be able to make the final investment decision for Aramis next year. The intention is to make as much use as possible of the existing gas infrastructure in the North Sea. One of the companies participating in this is Neptune Energy, owner of several gas platforms in the North Sea.
Neptune director Lex de Groot wants to start in a few years. “We pumped CO2 into the seabed between 2004 and 2016 and tested this in a research program with TNO. We learned a lot from this and proved that we can do this safely.”
2024-04-13 15:59:06
#CO2 #industry #captured #stored #North #Sea
