ADVOCATES HOPEFUL CCS WILL REMAIN PRIORITY IN NORWAY

Tamar Hallerman
GHG Monitor
9/13/13

Carbon capture and storage supporters said they are hopeful that a new government set to take power in Norway next month will be just as supportive of the technology as its predecessor administration, which likened the opening of the Scandinavian country’s first demonstration project to its “moon landing.” Erna Solberg was named Prime Minister-elect earlier this week after her Conservative Party defeated the incumbent Labor Party, which has led the country since 2005. The Conservative Party is expected to align itself with three other center-right parties and form a coalition government next month.

While Solberg and the Conservatives ran on a platform of lower taxes and less reliance on oil export revenue, more unclear is what her new government’s position will be on CCS, on which her predecessor Jens Stoltenberg staked significant political capital. But in interviews with GHG Monitor this week, Norwegian CCS advocates indicated that they remain cautiously optimistic that the new government will retain a focus on deploying the technology. “We have hope that the new government will progress and fast track the development of CCS in Norway. [Three of the parties likely to join the coalition government] have said that they stay loyal to the target of having CCS [demonstrated at Mongstad] by 2020. But we will have to see,” said Camilla Svendsen Skriung, a CCS adviser to the Oslo-based Zero Emission Resource Organisation.

Maryann Locka, an energy counselor for the Norwegian Embassy in Washington, said she also expects the new government to be supportive of CCS during an Atlantic Council event this week. “We have put a lot of effort into CCS projects. The government that has been sitting in office for the last eight years has been very supportive of CCS, and I’m sure the future government will also be supportive of CCS,” she said. Bellona President Frederic Hauge said events like the recent leak of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s fifth assessment report should cause the new Norwegian government “to give priority to regaining Norway’s position as a world leader on CCS.” 

‘Moon Landing’

CCS advocates had found a valuable ally in Stoltenberg, who in 2007 described the first CCS demonstration project under development at Mongstad as the technological equivalent to Norway’s “moon landing.” Stoltenberg was also on hand for TCM’s opening ceremony last year, where he called the $1 billion carbon capture test facility an “example for the future.”

However, despite Norway’s pioneering status bringing the first large-scale CO2 storage project online at Sleipner in 1996, the country has stumbled in recent years in terms of retaining its status as a global CCS leader. The ruling coalition in 2011 delayed making a final investment decision on Mongstad until 2016, citing concerns about the potential toxicity of emitted amine solvents after they degrade in the atmosphere. Also adding to uncertainties were press reports indicating that Statoil was considering closing its Mongstad refinery—and along with it plans for the CCS demonstration project—due to higher than expected operating costs and overcapacity in the oil market. Those reports, though, proved to be untrue. Mongstad is currently not expected to come online until 2020.