TotalEnergies increases its ambition to store CO₂ in the Danish North Sea

Copenhagen, 4 October 2022: TotalEnergies has applied to the Danish Energy Agency for a license to explore CO₂ storage potential in the Danish North Sea. The application covers an area including the Harald fields and a nearby saline aquifer. In the Harald fields, TotalEnergies is already assessing the CO₂ storage opportunity of depleted gas reservoirs within the framework of the Bifrost project.

“The area applied for is in line with the Company strategy to offer CO₂ transport and storage to its customers, with more than 10 million tons per annum by 2030″, says Martin Rune Pedersen, Country Chair for TotalEnergies Denmark.

“Carbon capture and storage is a key technology to reduce hard-to-abate residual emissions in several industrial sectors. TotalEnergies has the expertise in geosciences and large-scale project management needed to develop CO₂ transportation and storage projects”, continues Martin Rune Pedersen.

By enlarging the evaluation area beyond the Harald fields, TotalEnergies expects to increase the CO₂ storage volumes to bring a competitive solution to the market. At the same time, the establishment of CO₂ storage will support and develop activities in the offshore industry, which will both contribute to growth and employment.

“TotalEnergies would like to take an active role in Denmark’s energy transformation through concrete projects, and it is our ambition to support Denmark in becoming a center for CO₂-storage in Europe while maintaining and creating many jobs in Denmark and in rest of the North Sea.”, concludes Martin Rune Pedersen.

FACTS: CCS in Denmark

• The CCS technology could contribute to deliver part of the 20 million tons of CO₂ that Denmark targets to reduce by 2030. The state estimates that CCS has the potential to lower Denmark’s CO₂ emissions by between 5 and 9 million tons per year from 2030. That is up to 40 % of the total reduction target.
• The Danish subsoil could be suitable for storing CO₂ due to its geological properties. There are many places in the Danish underground identified that could potentially be suitable reservoirs for storage, covered by a sealing layer of claystone on top. Danish researchers have been researching CCS for several decades and have built an understanding of the technology.
• Denmark has a valuable infrastructure, in the form of pipelines and North Sea platforms, which can be reused and adapted to handle the transport and storage of CO₂.
• The IPCC and other experts highlight CCS as an important part of the technology solutions that are crucial to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.
• Competencies used for oil and gas activities, operations, service and maintenance, are similar to those used for CO2 transportation and storage activities. Therefore, Denmark can utilize the oil and gas industry knowledge for CO₂ storage solutions.

TotalEnergies media contact:

Thorkild Diness Jensen / Head of External Communications for TotalEnergies Denmark / +45 20 20 42 36 / thorkild-diness.jensen@totalenergies.com

About TotalEnergies in Denmark

TotalEnergies is Denmark’s leading oil and gas company employing a diverse and international workforce of around 1,200 people. We are responsible for 85% of the oil and 97% of the national gas produced and are developing one of the leading carbon storage projects which is expected to save millions of tonnes of CO₂ in the depleted oil and gas reservoirs in the Danish North Sea. TotalEnergies’ operations date back more than half a century, representing an important contribution to Denmark’s economy, energy supply and employment. In addition to our oil and gas activities, TotalEnergies is working on establishing new business activities within offshore wind, solar energy, and other renewable energy sources.

About TotalEnergies

TotalEnergies is a global multi-energy company that produces and markets energies: oil and biofuels, natural gas and green gases, renewables and electricity. Our more than 100,000 employees are committed to energy that is ever more affordable, cleaner, more reliable and accessible to as many people as possible. Active in more than 130 countries, TotalEnergies puts sustainable development in all its dimensions at the heart of its projects and operations to contribute to the well-being of people.

TotalEnergies and Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

TotalEnergies’ focus is first to avoid then to reduce its emissions by developing and deploying a systematic approach, asset-by-asset, to implement the best available technologies. In particular, the Company is developing industrial projects for carbon capture, transport, and storage (CCS). Backed by core competencies in large-scale project management, gas processing and geosciences, TotalEnergies is on track to achieve its ambition of developing storage capacity of 10 million metric tons of CO₂ per year by 2030 through significant industrial projects such as Northern Lights in Norway and Aramis in the Netherlands. Through all its CCS projects, the Company will reduce its own emissions and those of its customers.