EU approves funding for North Sea Havstjerne carbon capture scheme

The EU Innovation Fund has awarded Altera Infrastructure’s STARFISH project, part of the company’s Stella Maris Carbon Capture and Storage initiative, a grant of up to EUR225 million ($243 million).

STARFISH (Sequestration Technology And Reservoir: Floating Injection and Storage in Havstjerne) is a co-development with Harbour Energy, designed to provide a large-scale solution for CO₂ sequestration offshore using shared infrastructure.

The open-access CO₂ storage concept is said to enable captured emissions from multiple sources to be stored in the Havstjerne reservoir, 100 km southwest of Egersund in the Norwegian North Sea.

Last year, the project partners secured an exploration license for the reservoir; under the planned Phase 1 development, they will seek to store 42.75 MM metric tons of CO₂-equivalent over an initial 10-year period.

STARFISH would be the first offshore CO₂ storage project to transport liquid CO₂ via purpose-built ships directly to an offshore reservoir, Altera added. It will feature a novel injection system that can receive large volumes of liquid CO₂ directly from transport vessels for permanent storage in the subsurface. 

Altera said the project’s scalable solution could also accommodate existing and future CO₂ capture projects across Europe.

Funding remains subject to the conclusion of the Grant Agreement Preparation process, but it should be finalized by first-quarter 2025.