The installation of the approximately 20-kilometer-long offshore pipeline for the Porthos CO2 transport and storage project has been completed.
The pipeline will transport captured CO₂ from the Rotterdam port industry to storage reservoirs under the North Sea.
Porthos customers Shell, ExxonMobil, Air Liquide and Air Products will supply CO2 to the open-access pipeline running through the Rotterdam port area.
This spring, the start of the offshore pipeline was extended under the sea wall to land. This marked the start of the laying of the offshore pipeline towards the platform. It is a 20-kilometer route across the bottom of the North Sea, from the compressor station on the Maasvlakte to platform P18-a above the depleted gas fields. Here, the CO₂ will be stored permanently more than three kilometers below the seabed. The pipes were welded together on a ship and lowered to the seabed.
Once the pipeline had been completely laid, it was sunk in trenches along the entire route and then covered with a layer of sand for extra stability and protection.
While Porthos will transport 2.5 million tonnes per year, the onshore Porthos pipeline is ready for 10 million tonnes, so it can also supply CO2 to future projects like Aramis. The compressor station is also ready for expansion. It forms the heart of the future CO2 hub, to which also CO2next can be connected. This liquid CO2 terminal will be able to receive and deliver liquid CO2 by ship for customers not connected to a pipeline.
These projects in Rotterdam form the beginning of a CCS chain that can develop into an international CCS network with the Delta Rhine Corridor and other links.