Continuing the operation of the Technology Centre for CO2 capture at Mongstad

The Technology Centre for CO₂ capture at Mongstad (TCM) in Alver municipality in the Vestland county has for several years been an important arena for the development of the CO₂ capture technology. The technology centre is operated by the state enterprise Gassnova and the private companies Equinor, Shell and Total.

The state and the industrial companies have now agreed to continue the operation of TCM from the expiration date of the current agreement until the end of 2023.

— The technology centre at Mongstad  is an important part of the Norwegian carbon capture and storage (CCS) efforts, making significant contributions to the development of a necessary tool to mitigate climate change. I appreciate that we have reached an agreement with the partners Equinor, Shell and Total to continue the operation of the facilities. The industrial commitment to TCM is very important for the government. The new agreement provides a good foundation to continue the positive development at TCM, says Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Tina Bru.

The agreement provides a framework to diminish the reliance on both state aid and contributions from the industrial owners to finance the future operations of the TCM facilities. This is to be achieved through several measures, including contributions from additional future owners of TCM DA, reduced operational cost, cost sharing contribution from the users of the TCM facilities, third parties paying for specific services from TCM and sponsors of certain campaigns.

We believe that we might be able to bring in new industrial owners as early as in August, at the start of the new operational period, adds Bru.

Interest from international actors

— We see an increasing interest from international actors to test their technology at TCM. With the new agreement in place, TCM can continue the dialogue and cooperation with these actors to push forward the development of cost-effective capture technology, says Bru.

Since 2012, TCM has played an important role in testing, verifying and demonstrating a number of CO₂ capture technologies on an industrial scale, and has garnered considerable recognition from companies and partners worldwide.

— Collaboration is key to ensuring the development and deployment of effective capture technologies in the future. We are very pleased that both the Norwegian government and our industrial owners have renewed their commitment to TCM operations. Now we will continue our efforts to making carbon capture as efficient as possible to combat climate change, says Gassnova's chairman of TCM, Roy Vardheim.

Industrial scale demonstration of capture technology is an important part of the government's CCS strategy. The strategy also focuses on research and development through the research program CLIMIT, Centres for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME), and strong participation in European research programs. A central part of the strategy is the full-scale CCS project in Norway. The decision to continue the operations at TCM is not linked to the on-going work with the investment decision for the full-scale CCS project.

The budgetary implications for 2020 will be presented in connection with the national budget (RNB) 2020.