Equinor has awarded Subsea 7 an Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract for the Northern Lights Phase 2 project in Norway. This makes Subsea 7 a Technical Service Provider (TSP) of the Northern Lights 2 project. The contract stands in the range of $50 million to $150 million. Owning a third of the project, Equinor will also remain as the TSP and overseer of Northern Lights 2 construction and operation as earlier on stated. This comes just days after Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies launched Norway’s Northern Lights Phase 2 project with a NOK 7.5 billion ($700 million) investment.
Norway’s Northern Lights CCS project factsheet
Phase: Northern Lights phase 2
Location: Norway
Cost: NOK 7.5 billion ($700 million)
Developers: Equinor, Shell PLC, and TotalEnergies
TSP: Equinor
EPC contractor: Subsea 7
CCS facility capacity: 5 Million Metric Tons per Annum (MMtpa)
Project commissioning date: 2028
Subsea 7 EPC contract and the $700 million investment
Subsea 7’s EPC contract will involve construction work of a 5 km CO2 pipeline for the Northern Lights Phase 2 carbon capture and storage (CCS) facility. This is in line with the initial-made investment that had at its core the expansion of the CCS facility to hold over 5 million metric tons per annum (MMtpa) from 1.5 MMtpa.
Also as part of the Subsea 7’s EPC contract will be the installation of satellite structures, umbilicals and tie-in. This will run parallel to the $700 million investment ambition by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies.
As part of its vision for the expansion of the Northern Lights Phase 2 project, the consortium saw it fit to expedite the project by leveraging the facility’s existing onshore and offshore infrastructures. New construction will feature in the installation of the storage tanks, pumps, and wells. Subsea 7 will also oversee the pre-commissioning of the Northern Lights 2 once it has achieved its EPC targets.
Additionally, of the recent announcement by Subsea 7, project management and engineering services for the project will be underway at its Norway office immediately. The stipulated timeline for the pipeline construction will see fabrication done first at the company’s spoolbase in Vigra, Norway. Thereafter, the offshore operations will start in 2026 through to 2027. This aligns with the three-member consortium’s phase 2 operational due date of 2028.
Northern Lights 2 project FID, investments
The recently signed Northern Lights 2 project Financial Investment Decision (FID) also came about after the consortium reached a milestone decision. This is the cross-border carbon transport and storage agreement with Swedish-based energy provider, Stockholm Exergi AB. The capacity for transport and storage of the CO2 stands at 900,000 metric tons, and this will start once the Northern Lights 2 carbon capture and storage facility becomes operational in 2028.
The Northern Lights 2 also secured EUR 131 million from the European Union through its Connecting Europe Facility for Energy program, This amount accounts for a portion of the $700 million invested in the project.
