The partners were today awarded permit holders for the project named CO₂Storage Kalundborg, with a reservoir approximately 1400 meters below ground, and with a potential capacity to store up to 12 million tons of CO₂ per year.

If the partnership over the next years successfully develops the permit into a CO₂ storage facility approved by the Danish authorities, it could start storage of CO₂ at the end of this decade.

“We are delighted to receive this exploration permit together with Ørsted and Nordsøfonden. Developing large-scale CO₂ solutions is critical for hard-to-abate industries to reduce emissions while maintaining industrial activity and value creation. Our first important task in the project is to ensure that environmental requirements are met before seismic and subsurface data collection can start. The exploration phase will last several years, before the Danish authorities approves the license area as suitable for safe and permanent CO₂ storage,” says Grete Tveit, senior vice president for Low Carbon Solutions in Equinor.

Operator Equinor holds a 60 per cent share in the awarded exploration license, with partner Ørsted having a 20 percent stake, and the Danish state participating through Nordsøfonden with a 20 percent equity.

Equinor expect 4-8 per cent real base project returns for its early phase CO₂storage business, and further value uplift potential when commercial markets are developed.

“We will use our experience from safely storing CO₂ on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for nearly 30 years and other CCS developments when exploring the permit in Denmark. To mature more CO₂ storage capacity aligns with our ambition of having 30 to 50 million tons of CO2 transport and storage capacity per year by 2035. A CO₂ storage facility near Ørsted’s existing infrastructure is a good fit, as we are combining our strong capabilities as industry partners to establish a complete end-to-end CO₂ capture, transport and storage value chain,” says Tveit.

The awarded license is in the vicinity of Ørsted’s established shipping and storage terminal Ørsted Kalundborg CO₂ hub. Here the Danish energy company is constructing a CO₂ capture facility at the Asnæs Power Plant, which is set to become operational from the beginning of 2026, with CO₂ ship export to the Northern Lights storage facility in Norway. Ørsted’s terminal with its strategic position and scale will be a key component for reception and transport of CO₂ to the potential CO₂ storage facility the partnership will explore.

“We are pleased that we, along with Equinor and Nordsøfonden, have been awarded a license to explore whether the area in the municipality of Kalundborg is suitable for carbon storage. From 2026, we will capture 430,000 tons of biogenic CO₂ from two of our combined heat and power plants, and being part of this collaboration is a natural next step in building our Ørsted Kalundborg CO₂ Hub, as we are already establishing the logistics, infrastructure, and terminal solutions necessary for handling CO₂ at Kalundborg. In this way, we are a good partner to Equinor, who will be operating the CO₂ storage site” says Ole Thomsen, senior vice president and head of Ørsted’s Bioenergy business.