Page 10 - EurOil Week 37 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

Iceland launches world’s largest

CO2-to-rock plant

ICELAND THE world’s biggest plant for extracting CO2 with water and pumped deep underground,
from the air and converting it into rock has where it slowly turns into rock. It runs on energy
The CO2 will be mixed started operations in Iceland, the companies from a nearby geothermal power plant.
with water and pumped behind the project announced on September 8. While carbon capture utilisation and stor-
deep underground Named Orca, after the Icelandic word “orka” age (CCUS) is used to reduce the amount of
where it slowly turns meaning “energy,” the facility comprises four CO2 that escapes into the atmosphere from
into rock. units capable of sucking 4,000 tonnes of CO2 human activity, there is growing recognition
out of the air annually. It was built by Switzer- that direct air capture (DAC) will also need
land’s Climeworks and Iceland’s Carbfix at a cost to be employed to stem the rise and eventu-
of between $10mn and $15mn. ally reduce the amount of CO2 that is in the
“Our climate goals will not be met without atmosphere.
large-scale removal of CO2 from the atmos- The technology is still in its relative infancy,
phere,” Carbfix said. “This first-of-a-kind sys- however. There are currently only 15 DAC plants
tem marks an important milestone in the fight in operation around the world, with a combined
against the climate crisis and the Carbfix team is CO2 intake capacity of just over 9,000 tonnes per
contributing to much needed climate action by year (tpy). US oil producer Occidental is cur-
turning CO2 into stone.” rently developing what will be the world’s largest
The plant employs high-tech filters and fans DAC facility, capable of pulling 1mn tpy of CO2
to extract CO2, which is then isolated and mixed from the air near its oilfields in Texas. ™

Lundin targets carbon

neutrality by 2023

SWEDEN SWEDEN’S Lundin has brought forward its tar- reducing operational emissions across other
get for reaching carbon neutrality by two years to areas of the business, has created a unique posi-
In absolute terms, 2023, the company announced on September 15, tion from which I believe significant value will
Lundin is targeting a representing the most ambitious climate target be created.”
50% cut in emissions. for an oil company of its size. Lundin first announced its neutrality goal in
The company, whose flagship project is the February 2020, initially envisaging it would take
Edvard Krieg field in the Norwegian North Sea, until 2030 to reach net zero. But a year later it
said the target covered Scope 1, 2 and 3 emis- moved the target to 2025.
sions. It plans to deliver on this goal with the As part of the effort, Lundin in April this year
help of natural carbon capture projects, such as sold what it said was the world’s first oil cargo
forestation initiatives, and carbon credit offtake to be independently certified as carbon neutral.
agreements. These projects have undergone due The cargo came from the Edvard Krieg field and
diligence and their climate credentials have been was sold to Italian refiner Saras.
certified. Lundin wants all oil it sells to be carbon neu-
In absolute emission terms, Lundin is target- tral by 2025. ™
ing a 50% cut by 2023. It has set aside $800mn
for its mission to reach neutrality, of which 70%
has already been spent on electrifying platforms
at Edvard Krieg and the larger Equinor-led
Johan Sverdrup project, in which Lundin has an
interest.
“Acceleration of carbon neutrality by two
years to 2023 is a key differentiator for our busi-
ness,” Lundin CEO Nick Walker commented.
“The defining factor has been the full electrifi-
cation of our main production assets by the end
of 2022, which when coupled with our focus on

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 16•September•2021