Australia has much to learn from Norway’s Longship carbon capture and storage project.
Many believe that carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an important tool to meaningfully decarbonise heavy industries, particularly hard-to-abate ones. There are two operational CCS projects in Australia;Chevron’s Gorgon project and Santos’ Moomba project, and a few others in the works. However, public attitude toward CCS is generally cold, with detractors citing safety and environmental concerns.
But in Norway, which is generally considered a global leader in sustainability, the picture is quite different.
“CCS is widely accepted and believed to be an important decarbonisation tool in Norway,” Tore Moe, a senior energy advisor at Norwegian Energy Partners, told Energy Today.
“Even some of the environmental groups in Norway, like Bellona are big supporters of CCS.
“Here in Australia, CCS has got a fairly bad reputation, and I believe this comes from a lack of understanding of exactly what CCS is.
“By comparison, there has been a lot of public information about CCS in Norway, which has helped shape public perception.”
CCS projects have been in full swing in Norway since 1996 and the latest, the Longship project, is by far the most ambitious yet.
Originally conceived and supported by the Norwegian government through its agency Gassnova, Longship is a large-scale CO₂ capture, transport and storage project that spans international borders and industries.
Longship comprises two major elements. The first is the capture of CO₂ emissions from industrial facilities including a cement plant near Oslo, demonstrating how hard-to-abate sectors can reduce their emissions. The captured and liquefied CO₂ is then transported via ship to the Northern Lights project, which is the transport and storage backbone of Longship. Northern Lights ships it to a west-coast Norwegian terminal where it is temporarily stored, then injects it 2600m beneath the seabed.
The Northern Lights project can currently store around 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂ per year, and an expanded phase under development will upgrade capacity to about 5 million tonnes annually. The project already has offtake agreements with multiple European emitters, allowing captured CO₂ to be transported into Norway for storage.
“Longship is meant to be a case study – a project to showcase the feasibility of a multi-user injection hub,” Tore said.
“As part of the project, CO₂ is required to be transported across national boundaries. Norway has signed agreements with a number of countries for this purpose, including Sweden, Denmark, and Holland.”
This multi-user, multi-national CCS project demonstrates what’s possible with collaboration and ambitious planning, and now, Tore wants to share the key lessons with the world.
Don’t miss Longship at EXA 2026
Tore will be presenting The Longship CCS Project: Lessons from Norway, at the upcoming Energy Exchange Australia (EXA) which takes place in Perth from 10–12 March 2026.
EXA, formerly known as AOG Energy, is a major industry gathering where operators, suppliers, engineers and policymakers discuss the pressing issues shaping the energy transition, from gas and hydrogen to decarbonisation technologies like CCS. Unlike many other industry events, EXA is completely free to attend.
“We attend EXA every year,” Tore said. “It’s an excellent opportunity for networking, where suppliers and customers can connect and hopefully build business.”
“This year I’ll be presenting on the Longship project, which will be quite topical as there are many emerging CCS projects in Australia.”
Longship’s evolution from concept to reality shows that CCS can be more than a single-user tool. For Australia and neighbouring regions in the Asia-Pacific, understanding how to replicate and adapt those lessons could be critical in building effective, multi-user CCS infrastructure.
To register a spot at EXA for free, visit https://exaexpo.com.au/register/