PSV Aurora Storm will play a key position in Denmark’s Project Greensands CCS venture
The 2015-built platform provide vessel Aurora Storm is presently alongside in Esbjerg, Denmark, being ready for a brand new position, transporting particular containers stuffed with captured CO2 from Belgium to the Nini West platform within the Danish sector of the North Sea. The work on the vessel is being carried out by transport and logistics specialist Blue Water Shipping A/S and engineering and contracting specialist Semco Maritime.
Both are members of the consortium behind Project Greensand, a carbon seize and storage (CCS) enterprise backed by the Danish state and which plans set up a price chain for transportation and geological CO2 storage offshore in Denmark by the tip of 2025.
Conversion of the Aurora Storm is a part of the superior pilot venture for Project Greensand
“In the coming weeks, we will work intensively on rebuilding and upgrading Aurora Storm, so we can safely transport the containers of liquid CO2 from Belgium to the Danish part of the North Sea without any problems. We will install a grilling system on the vessel with the frame structure ensuring that the containers stay in their position on the vessel when we sail from Antwerp to the North Sea,” says Søren G. Nielsen, head of chartering at Blue Water.
In addition to the grillage system, {the electrical} techniques on the Aurora Storm are additionally being upgraded. Piping and pumps are being added to the vessel enabling direct transmission of CO2 through the jack-up rig Noble Resolve from containers aboard the Nini West platform after which down into the sandstone reservoir 1,800 meters beneath the seafloor of the North Sea, the place the CO2 might be saved safely and completely.
“It is crucial for Project Greensand’s pilot phase that we get the CO2 transported safely from Belgium to the North Sea. This allows us – as the first in Europe – to demonstrate the entire value chain in the capture and storage of CO2 with a view to making a difference to the climate. Aurora Storm is one of the last and most important pieces in the initial pilot phase in Project Greensand,” says Søren R. Poulsen, venture director at Project Greensand.
Meantime, the Noble Reserve has additionally arrived in Esbjerg, the place intensive work is underway to examine, improve and optimize it for the venture. Semco Maritime has chosen and delivered tools for each Aurora Storm and Noble Resolve and is taking part in a key position within the preparation.
“We are excited that Aurora Storm and Noble Resolve have arrived in Esbjerg so that we can continue the work with Project Greensand,” says Anders Benfeldt, senior vp for oil & gasoline at Semco Maritime. We have put intense work into designing and creating options for storing CO2 within the North Sea. “We now enter the crucial phase where everything has to be installed before we can begin the work on the Nini field.”
