INEOS, the day to day operator, of ‘Greensand Future’ and its partners, Harbour Energy, and Nordsøfonden have announced the Final Investment Decision (FID) to safely and permanently store carbon dioxide from Danish emitters in a depleted oil field in the Danish North Sea. 

With the aim of initiating storage operations into the INEOS-operated Nini field in the Danish North Sea at the end of 2025/early 2026, ‘Greensand Future’ will become the EU’s first operational CO₂ storage facility intended to mitigate climate change. The FID paves the way for expected investments of more than $150m across the Greensand CCS value chain to scale storage capacity.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe Chairman of INEOS said "This is a breakthrough for Carbon Capture and Storage. Greensand Future will be the first CO₂  storage facility in operation in the EU supporting both Danish and EU’s climate objectives.”

Greensand Future is a full industrial CCS value chain built on a scalable platform. This platform allows for the gradual expansion of storage capacity as CO₂ volumes increase. It is directly applicable to other onshore and offshore storage projects, contributing to the much-needed global acceleration of CCS deployment. 

Mads Gade, Head of Denmark, INEOS Energy said: “With Greensand Future and the establishment of the full value chain we are sending an important message to the Danish and European emitters currently considering large-scale capture projects, that it can be done.” 

Greensand Future aims to safely capture and permanently store 400.000 tonnes of CO₂  each year as a start allowing for the gradual expansion of storage capacity towards 2030 as CO₂  volumes increase with a potential to store up to 8.000.000 tonnes of CO₂  per annum. 

The European Commission has estimated that the European Union will need to establish a carbon storage capacity of 250 million tonnes of CO₂  per year by 2040 to achieve the objectives of the Paris Agreement. CCS is also considered a key technology in reaching the Danish 2045 net-zero targets. 

The CO₂  in the first phase of Greensand Future will be captured and liquified at Danish biomethane production plants, transported to the port of Esbjerg, and then shipped by Royal Wagenborg to the Nini field in the Danish North Sea for safe and permanent storage. 

Last year, on March 8th, 2023, the INEOS-led pilot Project Greensand conducted the world’s first cross-border offshore CO₂  storage intended to mitigate climate change as His Majesty King Frederik of Denmark officially initiated the first injection of CO₂  into the Nini field during the pilot phase of Project Greensand. 

Mads Gade, Head of Denmark, INEOS Energy says “Last year we were the first in the world to succeed in developing a value chain for safe and efficient capture, transport and storage of CO₂  across national borders. Now we are proud to take the next step, building on the learnings from the pilot and aiming to deliver a fully operational commercial project by end 2025/early 2026”. 

The results of Project Greensand have been verified by the independent and world-leading provider of risk, verification and standardisation services, DNV. The thorough technical verification ensures that the stored CO₂  remains safely and permanently in the closed Nini West reservoir 1,800 metres below the North Sea seabed, as expected. 

Mads Gade said, “It is documented and independently verified that Greensand has a well-functioning storage, where large amounts of CO₂  that would otherwise have been emitted into the atmosphere can be stored”.