First dedicated EU-built offshore CO2 carrier set for launch

A dedicated CO2 carrier currently under construction at Royal Niestern Sander shipyard in the Netherlands is nearing completion, according to participants in the Project Greensand undersea carbon capture and storage venture in the North Sea. 

"The vessel is the first of its kind made in the EU and shows how the maritime industry in the North of the Netherlands can contribute to the energy transition. Construction is progressing steadily and according to plan," Wagenborg Offshore director Edwin de Vries said. 

Once launched and operational, the carrier will sail regular routes from Port Esbjerg to the Nini West platform, where the CO2 will be injected for permanent storage to the Nini reservoir approximately 1,800 m beneath the seabed.

Project Greensand, the first cross-border CCS project, is aiming to start permanently storing CO2 below the North Sea seabed by the end of 2025.

The group behind the world’s first cross-border carbon capture and storage scheme (CCS) said, following successful technical verification of a pilot project in September 2024, that it is effectively open for business. The project is now awaiting the Danish authorities’ approval for permanent storage, with an ambition that Greensand will be the first operational CO2 storage facility in the EU and will start storing CO2 by the end of 2025.

"With the plan to initiate safe sand permanent CO2 storage in the Nini Field by late 2025/early 2026, Greensand is expected to become the EU’s first operational CO2 storage facility aimed at mitigating climate change. This investment decision has paved the way for expected investments exceeding Dkr1Bn (US$150M) across the Greensand CCS value chain to scale up storage capacity," project partner INEOS said in a statement on the vessel’s upcoming launch.

With the completion of the ship’s hull, the group said the vessel enters its next phase of construction, which includes retrofitting, commissioning, testing and sea trials.

The milestone follows a series of major developments in the Greensand project. In December 2024, INEOS and its partners Harbour Energy and Nordsøfonden made the final investment decision to move ahead with full-scale CO2 storage operations in the Nini Field.

The agreement between INEOS and Wagenborg for the delivery of the newbuild CO2 carrier was signed in November 2024.