Gassnova

Gassnova SF is the Norwegian state enterprise for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS). From 2005-2007, Gassnova was a state administrative body, established to stimulate R&D through the programme CLIMIT with funds from the Norwegian Gas Technology Fund. 2008 was Gassnova’s first whole year as a state enterprise (Norwegian: statsforetak – thereof SF).

The enterprise was established to manage governmental interests related to coping with the challenge of climate change, specifically focusing on the capture and geological storage of the greenhouse gas CO₂.

Starting in autumn 2007, Gassnova was assigned an increasing number of responsibilities. Through the CLIMIT programme, we continue to contribute to long-term technology development throughout the entire carbon value chain from CO₂ capture to transport and storage. Gassnova represents governmental interests in the realization of large-scale CO₂ projects. In 2008, assessment or planning was performed in the following projects:

- European CO₂ Technology Centre at Mongstad (TCM)

- CO₂ capture from the gas-fired power plant at Kårstø

- Full-scale CO₂ capture at Mongstad

- Transport and storage of CO₂ from Kårstø and Mongstad

Gassnova also provide professional advice to the authorities in matters relating to CCS.

In its activities, Gassnova aims to realise pioneer projects in close cooperation with the industry. In the long run, the construction of large processing plants for CO₂ capture will be an industrial activity, and the state will primarily focus on its role as regulatory authority. However, the state plays an important part as a participant and catalyst in pioneering projects, as can be seen in the Mongstad and Kårstø projects.

The use of new CO₂ capture technology must be seen in connection with entire value chains, thus including transport and long-term geological storage.

International regulation and harmonisation of framework conditions is important because climate change is a global challenge, but also because the industry and its contractors are international players.

The establishment of CO₂ value chains is actually a new industry, with the potential of becoming an industry of the same magnitude as the present-day petroleum, gas or coal industries. We could perhaps call it the establishment of a recycling scheme for carbon – returning it back to the earth from where it was taken, after having utilised the energy that was bound in the organic material.

Norway’s contribution to this development is substantial: partly because the country has taken on an offensive stance and is willing to invest significantly in CCS technology, but also because our considerable export of hydrocarbons provides us with a moral as well as a commercial incentive for a sustainable continuation of our petroleum-based activities.