DNV Assessment Advances Aker BP and Höegh Evi's Ship-Based CO₂ Transport and Offshore Injection Concept

DNV has issued a Statement of Feasibility for Aker BP's and Höegh Evi's concept to inject CO₂ directly from shuttle carriers into subsea wells for permanent storage at the Atlas project on the Norwegian Continental Shelf (NCS).

Atlas is intended to inject up to 6 million tonnes of CO₂ a year in its initial phase, with potential for further expansion. The licence carries an estimated total storage capacity of 150 million tonnes; Aker BP is targeting first injection around 2031, followed by more than 25 years of operation. By providing storage of captured emissions, projects such as Atlas could support the decarbonization of European industries whose CO₂ emissions are difficult to avoid at source.

>> In Other News: What Ozona and Marubeni's Bee County FID Unlocks Next

Aker BP is developing Atlas around a preferred subsea concept in which shuttle carriers operated by Höegh Evi would transport liquefied CO₂ to the storage site for direct injection into the reservoir. This approach would avoid the need for new onshore facilities, cross-border pipelines and permanent offshore structures, offering a more scalable and flexible route to storage while retaining pipeline transport as a future option. The concept is intended to connect multiple European industrial clusters to high-quality offshore storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf.

DNV's assessment covered the offshore infrastructure required to transfer CO₂ from the carrier and inject it into the reservoir. DNV identified the concept's main technical challenges and uncertainties and considers them manageable at this stage of development, establishing that the concept is feasible within the scope assessed. The Statement of Feasibility (SoF) was developed using DNV's technology qualification methodology, DNV-RP-A203, and the CCS-specific framework set out in DNV-SE-0160. These references provided the basis for identifying key technical challenges and evaluating whether they can be managed through further design maturation and verification activities. The assessment established that the concept is feasible within the scope considered.

This new assessment follows earlier DNV Approvals in Principle (AiPs) for both the liquefied CO₂ carrier and the floating CO₂ reception and conditioning terminal (FCSO) being developed by Höegh Evi. Together, these assessments cover key elements of the planned value chain from CO₂ aggregation and marine transport through to offshore injection.

Prajeev Rasiah, Senior Vice-President & Regional Director for Northern Europe, Energy Systems at DNV

Prajeev Rasiah, Senior Vice-President & Regional Director for Northern Europe, Energy Systems at DNV, said: "Direct injection from ship to reservoir requires the marine, subsea and injection systems to function as one integrated value chain. While further verification and maturation work will be needed as the project progresses, our assessment demonstrates that the concept is technically feasible and provides a sound basis for continued development."

In practice, industrial emitters would send captured CO₂ to a floating terminal operated by Höegh Evi, where volumes would be aggregated, purified and liquefied for shipping. This conditioning stage was outside the scope of DNV’s SoF work, which covered the subsequent shipping and offshore injection elements. By pooling smaller volumes into larger shipments, the terminal could make offshore storage accessible to industrial sites that could not support a dedicated transport link of their own, supporting aggregation, economies of scale and more efficient access to permanent storage.

The floating terminal is designed to hold between 40,000 and 80,000 cubic metres (m³) of intermediate storage, while each shuttle carrier could transport up to 50,000m³ per voyage. Onboard equipment would prepare the CO₂ for safe injection and limit mixing between different CO₂ streams. At Atlas, an offshore loading system and underwater lines would transfer it directly into the injection wells.

Ørjan Jentoft, Aker BP CCS Asset Manager, said: "Atlas is intended to connect industrial emitters in Europe with permanent, large-scale storage on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The marine-based concept would allow that for transport and storage chain to be developed in phases as volumes grow, supporting aggregation and scalable growth while retaining pipeline transport as a future option. DNV's Statement of Feasibility is an important step as we continue to mature the project towards an investment decision."

Nils Jakob Hasle, EVP Clean Energy at Höegh Evi, added: "The industry requires flexible transportation solutions to access offshore CO₂ storage. By integrating floating collection and conditioning infrastructure with large-scale shuttle transportation, this concept enables CO₂ from multiple sources to be aggregated efficiently and delivered directly to permanent offshore storage."

The EXL011 Atlas licence was awarded by the Norwegian Ministry of Energy in September 2024 and is operated by Aker BP (80%) in partnership with ORLEN (20%). Atlas was included in the European Commission's second Union list of Projects of Common Interest and Projects of Mutual Interest (PCI/PMI) in April 2026. In October 2026, Aker BP and Höegh Evi were awarded EUR 223 million from the EU Innovation Fund to support implementation of the Atlas cross-border CO₂ transport and storage network, subject to a Final Investment Decision (FID) in 2028.

Subject to future investment decisions, Atlas is planned to commence operations in 2031.

The marine-based direct-injection concept could also be applied at EXL005 Poseidon, Aker BP’s other operated CO₂ storage licence on the NCS, where a similar subsea development concept is being evaluated.