Leading multi-discipline engineering consultancy, AGR, has announced participation in a three-year research project that aims to pave the way towards a carbon positive North Sea and cost efficient Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

Together with other energy companies and academia, AGR will be part of an extensive research project committed to developing new technologies and processes that aim to significantly reduce the cost of carbon capture related to transport and permanent storage. The project is also committed to find solutions for increasing the storage capacity in the Norwegian North Sea and improve the infrastructure related to the process from actual capture to subsurface storage.

This project, which has been backed by The Research Council of Norway, will be led by a consortium of energy companies that have formed The Linking Carbon Capture and Storage (LINCCS) research project. 

In addition to AGR, other Aker-group companies, Aker Solutions, Cognite and Aize make up part of this consortium. As do Wartsila, OpenGoSim, The Sustainable Energy Catapult Centre, SINTEF, Wintershall Dea, Vår Energi, Lundin, Equinor and TotalEnergies. 

Through collaboration, pooled knowledge, combined experience and resources, the LINCCS project expects to have the next-generation of CCS solutions ready for demonstration by the end of 2024, with full scale commercial projects expected to be finalised by 2027.

This project will examine existing components and processes currently used in CCS, before exploring ways to optimise these systems by implementing innovative, efficiency-enabling technologies and processes.  

As part of the LINCCS project, AGR’s multidisciplinary teams will deliver support in a number of key areas, including geoscience, reservoir and drilling engineering, storage monitoring, facilities, and cost engineering. 

This move marks an important moment in AGR’s commitment to delivering carbon capture and storage at scale while meeting net zero goals, as Svein Sollund (pictured above), Chief Executive Officer of AGR, explained:

“The journey towards net-zero is gathering pace and AGR is well-placed to play an important role in helping the industry achieve our mutual ambitious environmental aims. This research project speaks volumes of our commitment to tackling climate change.” 

“By working side by side with a number of other leaders in this space, our combined knowledge, experience and resources may prove critically important in uncovering efficiencies and introducing technologies that help the energy industry make its transition to low carbon energy exploration and production.”