Norway restarts work on Oslo Waste Carbon Capture Project

The operator of the project said that it restarted Monday after a two-year break to reduce development costs.

Aker Solutions, a Norwegian engineering group, announced separately that it won a contract valued up to 4.0 billion Norwegian Crowns ($355.72 millions) for the development.

The project, which was heavily subsided in Oslo's Klemetsrud District in April 2023 due to large projected cost overruns, has been redesigned and the new cost structure approved by the city council.

Hafslund Celsio said that the cost is expected to be 9.5 billion Norwegian crowns at most, which is around 1 billion dollars less than it was when the project was stopped in 2023.

The company said that the Norwegian government and the City of Oslo provided 5.1 billion crowns in grants and investment for the start-up and operation phases, as well as assistance with transport, permanent storage and support during the contract period.

Hafslund Celsio is Norway's largest district heater operator and is owned by Hafslund, a utility, and the investment funds Infranode & HitecVision.

The facility will be operational in the third quarter 2029, and it is estimated that 350,000 tonnes CO2 per year will be removed. This will reduce nearly 20% of the remaining fossil emissions of the city.

The CO2 captured in Klemetsrud forms part of Norway's Longship Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Plan, which includes carbon capture from a cement factory and the Northern Lights Transport and Storage Project.

Northern Lights opened officially in September but has not yet received any CO2 deposit.

Norway, a country rich in oil and gas, is placing a lot of faith in the new carbon capture and storage technology (CCS), as a means to reduce CO2 emission both domestically and internationally. $1 = 11.2449 Norwegian crowns (Reporting and editing by Terje Solsvik).

(source: Reuters)