The 8-in diameter, 151-km long, pipeline runs out to the storage structure, which lies beneath the gas-bearing layers on the Statoil-operated field, from the Melkoya receiving terminal in northern Norway. Statoil has been separating carbon dioxide from its Sleipner West gas production and storing these volumes in a subsurface formation in the North Sea since 1996; the injection and storage is set to reduce total carbon emissions from the two fields by up to 1.7 million tons/yr, including 700,000 from Snohvit.
Statoil’s work on carbon deposition is unique, and has been closely followed by research bodies and governments world-wide since the Sleipner West project began. “Our Snohvit pipeline marks the first offshore injection of carbon dioxide from a land-based plant,” Jorunn Klovning, manager of health, safety and the environment for the TromsÌü Patch/SnÌühvit, said. Injection of carbon dioxide beneath the seabed will substantially reduce the environmental burden at the Melkya plant, she pointed out. “At the same time, we’re winning valuable experience which will be highly significant for continued development of carbon deposition in future projects.”