INEOS Energy, with partners Harbour Energy and the Danish North Sea Fund, has opened the Greensand CO2 storage facility at the Port of Esbjerg. It is the first commercial-scale carbon storage site in the European Union, injecting CO2 into a depleted oil field about 250 km offshore and 1,800 meters below the seabed. The first phase can store up to 400,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, with plans to scale to 4-8 million tonnes annually. Initial CO2 supply comes from Danish biomethane plants, shipped via the EU's first purpose-built CO2 carrier. The opening marks a shift from pilot projects to operational CCS in Europe. EU targets call for 50 million tonnes of annual storage by 2030, so Greensand is a small but concrete step. The project highlights the need for regulatory and investment conditions to help industrial emitters capture CO2 at scale. Supporters argue it shows industry can reduce emissions without shutting down factories, though scaling up will depend on broader CCS infrastructure and policy incentives.
