Norwegian tanker owner Altera Infrastructure and partner Harbour Energy have been awarded a large grant to drive forward Europe’s first big carbon capture and storage (CCS) project.
The Starfish scheme has received €225m ($243m) from the European Union Innovation Fund.
Starfish stands for Sequestration Technology And Reservoir: Floating Injection and Storage in Havstjerne.
The reservoir is 100 km south-west of Egersund in southern Norway.
Phase 1 is expected to enable the storage of 42.75m tonnes of CO2-equivalent over the first 10 years.
It is the first CO2 storage project designed to transport liquid CO2 via purpose-built ships directly to an offshore reservoir, the company claims.
Altera has developed a CCS shipping concept called Stella Maris for the project.
The company told TradeWinds last year it will build 50,000-cbm CO2 shuttle tankers, as well as CO2 terminals and a floating injection unit.
In the first phase it is looking at ordering three tankers. Shipping operations are planned from late 2026 or early 2027.
The initiative aligns with the European Commission’s goal of achieving 50 mtpa of storage capacity by 2030, Altera said.
“The Starfish project represents a major step in creating a scalable and reliable storage solution that can accommodate existing and future CO2 capture projects across Europe,” it added.
