Subsea installation monitoring work completed on Northern Lights CCS project

Global subsea equipment solutions company Ashtead Technology has completed subsea installation monitoring work to support the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the North Sea. Developed by Equinor in partnership with Shell and Total, the Northern Lights project is the first of its kind in the region, aiming to collect and transport CO₂ from onshore sources and store it under the seabed.

The project marks the first occasion Ashtead Technology has been involved in a CCS programme, providing its integrated Deflection Monitoring System (DMS), a suite of structural monitoring systems to assist offshore construction operations by providing real-time guidance during subsea structure placement work.

The Northern Lights project is part of a Norwegian full-scale CCS project that includes the capture of CO₂ from industrial sources in the Oslo fjord region (cement and waste-to-energy) and shipping the liquid CO₂ to an onshore terminal on the Norwegian west coast. From there, the liquefied CO₂ will be transported by pipeline to an offshore storage location in the North Sea, for permanent storage some 1,000–2,000 meters below the seabed. The project will have an initial storage capacity of around 1.5mn t/y of CO₂.

Ashtead DMS installed on a subsea template as seen from ROV cameras
Photo: Ashtead Technology