A new LCO2 carrier recently arrived in Norway to commence operations under Northern Lights, the joint venture company formed by Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.
Built by Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore in China, Northern Purpose has been custom-designed to transport LCO₂ as part of the Northern Lights project, the world’s first cross-border CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure.
The vessel will now enter a long-term time charter and support the transport of captured CO₂ from industrial customers in Northwest Europe to Norway for permanent geological storage.
Northern Purpose will be operated alongside her earlier sisters Northern Pioneer, Northern Pathfinder, and Northern Phoenix. The newbuild is the fourth LCO2 carrier to be operated by Northern Lights.
The four ships are the first of their kind to safely transport CO₂ from European emitters to Northern Lights’ CO₂ receiving terminal at Øygarden, before it is permanently stored beneath the Norwegian continental shelf.
All four ships have the same design and have a cargo capacity of 7,500 cubic metres each, distributed across two cylindrical pressure tanks. They are engineered to safely handle CO₂ at low temperatures and medium pressure, ensuring operational reliability across the entire transport chain.
The ship is managed by Bernhard Schulte, the shipowning arm of the Schulte Group.