Facts:

Main developer: Statoil

The plan is for the power station at Mongstad to produce 280 megawatts of electricity and 350 megawatts of heat. The total investment at Mongstad (without the CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad) up until 2010 amounts to more than NOK 4 billion, and this also includes a gas pipeline from Kollsnes to Mongstad. The CHP station at Mongstad was completed in 2010.

The Norwegian government and Statoil have entered into an agreement to construct a full-scale carbon capture facility at Mongstad, which would capture emissions from both the power plant and the nearby refinery. As the first stage of the agreement , a partnership was established in June 2007 for CO2 Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM). The partnership consists of Gassnova SF, on behalf of the Norwegian state, Statoil, Shell, and Sasol. The pilot plant was officially opened on 7 May 2012, to an international gathering.

The goal of TCM is to further develop and test various technologies relating to carbon capture from exhaust gases from the combined heat and power station, and from emission sources at the refinery. In early December 2011, Gassnova announced that the Technology Centre Mongstad (TCM) would be commissioned in the second quarter of 2012. Read news article here.

Stage II comprises a full-scale facility that is capable of capturing carbon dioxide from both the combined heat and power station and other relevant emission sources at the refinery. An agreement between the government and Statoil about the completion of full- scale facility has not been signed yet, which means that it is still not clear who will be building and own the facility and how the project will be completed.

In May 2010 the government announced that they will not call for a final decision on the size and type of the full-scale facility in 2012 as earlier announced, but in 2014. This means that the construction will be completed in 2018. However, there has been a significant development since May 2010.

In summer 2011, the pre qualification of suppliers of the amine technology began. But due the uncertainty connected to possible health risks by the use of amines, this process was stopped in autumn. The government then announced they would debate the matters in the parliament before Christmas. This was again postponed in October, when the government announced that they would hand over a white paper to the parliament after Christmas.

The white paper from the Norwegian oil and energy ministry was presented in the parliament on February 28th, 2011, and showed that the government put off the project once again. The decision to invest is now delayed until 2016.

A postponement of the investment decision, and by that the decision on whether the plant will be cleaned, means increased uncertainty associated with the project. There is an election to the national assembly in 2013; this means that it is the new government that will decide the future to the project.

The government refers to the uncertainty associated with health effects of amines as a background for the delay. After the white paper came, several reports show that the negative health effects might be exaggerated, but there are still uncertainty and lack of knowledge concerning the amines.

The white paper passed the parliament April 12th, 2011. The minister of petroleum and energy, Ola Borten Moe, stated during the debate that the target is to complete the full scale plant as soon as possible and to the lowest cost as possible.

On April 5th, 2011, the Norwegian government and Statoil signed the "Step 2 Development agreement" concerning the responsibility of the Government and Statoil during the planning phase. The next step will be signing the agreement for the engineering phase, and this is estimated to happen within the end of 2013.

 

Other Sources and Press Release:

Technology Centre Mongstad opens, Energy Ministry PR, 7 May 2012

Statoil considers closure of Mongstad refinery, 28 March 2012
Norway delays CCS project again (March 2011)
Mongstad postponed again - still large emissions of CO2 (March 2011)
Large scale carbon capture and storage at Mongstad (June 2010)StatoilHydro submits plans to Government (February 2009)
Norwegian Government to invest in Mongstad (July 2008)
Carbon cooperation agreement at Mongstad (June 2007)
An important step towards CO2 capture at Mongstad (June 2007)
Technology development in Norway to reduce CO2 emissions (June 2007)
Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage in Norway [PDF] (April 2007)
The Norwegian government and Statoil to develop a world class environmental power project at Mongstad (October 2006)

Storage:

Saline aquifers

Companies involved

Main contact person:

• Anne Margrete Blaker, (Gassnova, Vice President Communications)

Homepage:

http://www.statoil.com/en/TechnologyInno

Persons involved in the project:

News about Mongstad