Page 9 - EurOil Week 37 2021

EurOil ENERGY TRANSITION EurOil

Equinor, Var Energi join Barents

blue ammonia plan

NORWAY NORWEGIAN oil producers Equinor and Var industrial partners with a strong local presence,”
Energi have joined forces with clean energy Horisont CEO Bjorgulf Haukelidsaeter Eidesen
The natural gas developer Horisont Energi to look at the poten- commented. “They have a long-term perspective
would come from Var tial production of blue ammonia in Norway’s far and bring extensive experience with large and
Energi’s Goliat and Alke north. complex technical projects.”
licences. Ammonia has long been used in the fertiliser The CCS part of Barents Blue is known as
and chemical industries. But if produced cleanly, Polaris. Horisont signed a memorandum of
it could also serve as a low-carbon energy carrier understanding (MoU) in March with Baker
and shipping fuel. The Barents Blue project con- Hughes on developing technologies for the
ceived by Horisont would take natural gas pro- project. And the following month, it agreed to
duced in the Barents Sea and use it to produce co-operate with shipping firm Knutsen on CO2
blue ammonia in Hammerfest that could then be transport and storage.
shipped to international markets. The resulting In addition to the CO2 released as a by-prod-
CO2 emissions from the process could be cap- uct of ammonia production, Polaris will also take
ture and piped back offshore for storage. third-party volumes of the pollutant. Horisont
“This project could become an important step said at the end of June it had signed several let-
in achieving our ambitious climate goals and ters of intent (LoIs) with European companies on
transition in a more carbon-neutral direction,” commercial CO2 storage. But it did not identify
Var Energi said in a statement announcing its the firms.
participation in Barents Blue. “Furthermore, as “We see substantial and increasing demand
resources owner, we are committed to effective for flexible and cost-effective carbon storage for
resource management and value creation in this the many CO2 capture projects in Scandinavia
region.” and the rest of Europe,” Eidesen said at the time.
The natural gas would come from Var Energi’s Hammerfest is also the site of Norway’s only
Goliat and Alke licences, which contain mostly LNG export plant, which has been offline since
oil but also some 25bn cubic metres of gas. Var last autumn when a serious fire broke out at the
has been weighing up options for how to best facility. The 5.6mn tonne per year (tpy) facility
develop this resource for some time. is not expected to resume operations until this
Under the co-operation agreement they coming October.
signed, the three companies will look at matur- Equinor and its partners at Hammerfest LNG
ing a technical and commercial concept for the have been considering an expansion of the facil-
project, helping to guide further studies and, ity for several years, exploiting the 90 bcm of dis-
eventually, a potential final investment decision covered but so far undeveloped remaining gas
(FID). in the Barents Sea. Barents Blue would suggest
“This agreement means that we are now mov- that this option has been dropped in favour of
ing forward in the Barents Blue project with two producing blue ammonia. ™

Week 37 16•September•2021 www. NEWSBASE .com P9