Yara International, a leading global ammonia player, and Northern Lights, a CO2 transport and storage supplier, sign a binding commercial agreement, enabling the first cross-border transportation and storage of CO2.

Yara aims to reduce its annual CO2-emissions by 800,000 tons from the ammonia production at Yara Sluiskil. The CO2 will be liquefied and shipped by Northern Lights from the Netherlands to permanent storage on the Norwegian continental shelf, 2.6 kilometres under the seabed.

This is a milestone for decarbonizing hard-to-abate industry in Europe and for Yara it’s an important step towards decarbonizing our ammonia production, product lines and the food value chain at large, says Svein Tore Holsether, CEO of Yara International.

We are very pleased that Yara has selected Northern Lights as CO2 transport and storage provider. This commercial agreement gives us the opportunity to further utilise the capacity at our storage site below the North Sea. It confirms the commercial potential for CCS and demonstrates that the market for transport and storage of CO2 is evolving rapidly, says Børre Jacobsen, Managing Director of Northern Lights.

Cutting 800,000 tons CO2 in Yara Sluiskil corresponds to 0.5% of the total annual emissions (2022) in the Netherlands. Over the next 15-years Yara will remove approximately 12 million tons of CO2 from its production in Sluiskil.

Yara Sluiskil is showing the way forward for European industry by taking another step on the decarbonization journey. Since 1990 Yara Sluiskil has cut 3.4 million tons of CO2 equivalents per year from its ammonia and fertilizer production, whilst at the same time almost doubling its production. Now we continue by reducing one of the biggest emission points in the Netherlands, says Michael Schlaug, VP Yara Netherlands.

This project forms part of Yara’s ongoing strategic transition to decarbonize and future-proof its core production assets as Yara Sluiskil is one of the world’s largest ammonia and mineral fertilizer plants. In addition to this project, Yara is evaluating potential large-scale blue ammonia production projects with CCS in the US. Coupling these investments with its leading global ammonia position, Yara can profitably decarbonize its premium product operations in Europe while also diversifying its energy position. To allocate capital to this transition, Yara is considering a number of options including a minority divestment of YCA, asset divestments and other available funding sources.