INEOS Opens EU's First Full-Scale Carbon Storage Site in Denmark

INEOS Energy, together with Harbour Energy and the Danish North Sea Fund, officially opened the Greensand carbon capture and storage facility in Denmark. The partners say the site is the European Union's first full-scale CO2 storage operation and was inaugurated by King Frederik X. INEOS has positioned the project as a commercially operational carbon storage business.

In the initial commercial phase, Greensand is expected to store as much as 400,000 tonnes of CO2 per year. The partners plan to expand the system over time, with a stated potential to reach between 4 and 8 million tonnes annually when the project attains its planned full capacity. INEOS said the company will source most of the CO2 from Danish biomethane plants.

Captured CO2 will be liquefied, transported by truck to a dedicated terminal at Port Esbjerg, and shipped on Carbon Destroyer 1, which INEOS describes as the EU's first purpose-built CO2 carrier. The cargo will be injected into the Nini West reservoir, a depleted oil field located roughly 250 kilometers offshore at an estimated depth of about 1,800 meters beneath the seabed.

INEOS chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe commented that Greensand shows carbon storage technology and operations are ready, and called for conditions that allow carbon capture to scale more rapidly across Europe. The announcement also noted that while Greensand is the EU's first such site, offshore CO2 storage has already started elsewhere in Europe, citing the Northern Lights project in Norway and its recent decisions to expand transport and storage capacity.