European Union’s first offshore CCS project set to open this year

Porthos CO2 transport and storage is set to become the first offshore carbon sequestration hub on the Dutch Continental Shelf and the European Union, when it commences operations later this year.

The North Sea project will use a converted gas production platform and a new pipeline to transport compressed CO2 from an industrial cluster in the Port of Rotterdam and inject it into depleted gas reservoirs for permanent storage.

Porthos, a joint venture between Energie Beheer Nederland, Gasunie and Port of Rotterdam, will convert the P18-A platform, where the partners plan to store 2.5M tonnes of CO2 annually.

Tampnet has been selected to provide connectivity using fibre optic cables, enabling continuous monitoring and remote control of the platform from shore.

“We will provide a redundant 25M bit/sec communication solution, which is designed to ensure high availability and operational reliability,” said Tampnet manager for the Netherlands, Huib Fenenga.

Offshore activity for the Porthos project started in 2025 with Allseas 2016-built Oceanic completing seabed surveys before 1974-built Lorelay installed the 20-km, 16-inch pipeline connecting the compressor station with the P18-A platform.