The Port of Rotterdam has announced that work on the Porthos CCS project in the port area is well advanced.
Porthos is developing infrastructure to transfer CO2 from industry in Rotterdam to exhausted gas sources in the North Sea.
Porthos clients Shell, ExxonMobil, Air Liquide, and Air Products will send CO2 to an open-access pipeline in the Rotterdam port region. The CO2 will be transferred by an offshore pipeline to an existing platform in the North Sea, some 20 kilometres from the coast.
This platform will inject CO2 into depleted gas fields located in a sealed pool of porous sandstone more than 3 kilometres beneath the North Sea.
The construction of the Porthos onshore open-access pipeline marks the start of the development of a future CO2 network in Northwest Europe, according to the port.
The pipeline can deliver CO2 to future projects like Aramis, with a capacity of 10 million tonnes onshore and 2.5 million tonnes transported annually.
The EU has designated Porthos as a project of common interest and received €102 million ($112 million) from the Connecting Europe Facility. This is reportedly the European Union (EU)’s first large-scale CO2 transport and storage project.
“CCS is crucial to meet climate targets. By building the first large-scale transport and storage system for CO2 in the Netherlands, Porthos is taking a big step,” said the Minister of Climate Policy and Green Growth, Sophie Hermans.
“This will allow the industry to reduce emissions and keep a competitive industry here in the Netherlands. I am proud of all the parties who are making this possible.”
In July, the port reported that cargo traffic remained unchanged in the first half of 2024 compared to the same time last year.