Thursday was a significant day in Hirtshals with visitors from Austria and Germany. The Austrian finance minister, Magnus Brunner, had expressed a special desire to visit the northern Jutland city, which is dedicated to becoming a central location in Denmark for CO2 shipping for storage in depleted oil and gas reservoirs in the North Sea. At the development company Green Port North, which focuses on new green energy solutions and sustainability for the Port of Hirtshals, there was great satisfaction with the visit, which also included German parliamentarian Oliver Grundmann.
- We are honored to have been hosts when the minister and his team chose to spend a whole day in Hirtshals," says Steen Harding Hintze, CEO of Green Port North, and adds about the Austrian finance minister:
- The minister is also responsible for the remit of the underground, and faces the challenge of dealing with CO2 emissions.
Great potential
Hintze emphasizes that there is no competition between the ports of Esbjerg and Hirtshals for CO2 shipping.
- We do not see ourselves in competition with Esbjerg. There is room for both ports, he states.
The interest from Austria is significant, but it is Germany's decision not to store CO2 on land that really opens up opportunities.
Germany, with its 80 million tons of CO2 annually, has chosen not to store on its own territory. It is hard to imagine the scale. And several countries are interested in storage solutions, informs Hintze.
Three phases ahead
The development towards CCS and final storage in the North Sea is divided into three phases.
- We plan to start in 2026 with the first phase, where CO2 will initially be transported here by trucks. In the second phase, from around 2028 to 2030, larger companies such as Aalborg Portland will begin to deliver, Hintze says about the company, which is one of Denmark's largest CO2 emitters.
- In the third phase, we will start importing CO2. A pipeline is expected to be in place at this point, so transport by truck will be unnecessary, Hintze explains about the future, where a pipeline will be able to transport both German and Austrian CO2 to final storage via Hirtshals under the North Sea.< /p>
- In addition, CO2 from the Baltic area can also be shipped to storage, as this region does not have geological conditions suitable for CO2 storage, says Steen Harding Hintze.
Text, graphics, images, sound, and other content on this website are protected under copyright law. DK Medier reserves all rights to the content, including the right to exploit the content for the purpose of text and data mining, cf. Section 11b of the Copyright Act and Article 4 of the DSM Directive.
Customers with IP agreements/major customer agreements may only share Danish Offshore Industry articles internally for the purpose of handling specific cases. Sharing in connection with specific cases refers to journaling, archiving, or similar uses.
Customers with a personal subscription/login may not share Danish Offshore Industry articles with individuals who do not themselves have a personal subscription to Danish Offshore Industry.
Any deviation from the above requires written consent from DK Medier.
