Altera to build 'large shuttle tankers for CO2 transportation across Europe'

Havsterjne is located 100 km southwest of Egersund with an estimated annual storage capacity of 7M tonnes per annum (mta), making it larger than Wintershall Dea’s other carbon capture and storage (CCS) project, the US$2.4Bn Northern Lights venture.

Commenting on the Havstjerne licence award, Altera chief executive Ingvild Saether said, “We are pleased the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy has made CO2 storage available for the industry. CCS as a decarbonisation strategy is expected to expand and grow significantly in Europe in the coming years, so this is only the beginning. The world needs CCS on a massive scale, and we are proud to be part of the solution. Together with our strong partner Wintershall Dea, we are ready to do our part in leading the industry towards a sustainable future.”

Altera’s current fleet totals 37 vessels including floating production, storage and offloading units, shuttle tankers, floating storage and offtake units, long-distance towing and offshore installation vessels.

This enormous project will require more CO2 storage tankers, floating injection units and storage terminals placed across Europe.

Altera vice president and head of CCS Johanne Koll-Hansen Bø said, “We have been working on our maritime CCS concept Stella Maris for many years, and with the storage licence now in place, we are ready to develop and realise a large-scale integrated CO2 infrastructure solution to customers across Europe.”

Havstjerne represents the first phase of the Stella Maris value chain, which eventually envisions multiple collection hubs across Europe and large shuttle tankers that transport CO2 to permanent storage sites on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. 

Altera applied for the storage licence in January.