Four companies advance to next round

On 29 February 2008, Gassnova SF sent invitations to four companies. These have now confirmed their intent to compete for the contract for construction of the carbon capture facilities at Kårstø. – The project group, under the leadership of Project Director Ole Rønning, has been assessing the submitted applications since mid-January, explains Managing Director Bjørn-Erik Haugan. This has been quite a job, he points out, but now we are sure the four companies advancing to the next round are the best qualified ones. - The four companies who now will start carrying out front end engineering and design studies are: HTC Purenergy Inc. and Bechtel Overseas Corporation from Canada/USA, Aker Clean Carbon from Norge,
Fluor Daniel Construction Company from England/USA and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, LTD. from Japan, Mr. Haugan informs.

Based on the "NVE Report"

The government has decided to establish full-scale Carbon Capture and Storage at Kårstø. This involves constructing CO₂ capture facilities, installing pipelines for CO₂ transport and storing CO₂ in geological formations. The work on carbon capture from the Kårstø power plant is based on the report ”CO₂ management at Kårstø”, which was prepared by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) in 2006. The report describes technical and financial aspects, as well as the time schedule of the carbon capture plant.

The project team CO₂ Kårstø

The Kårstø project was transferred from the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy to Gassnova SF as of 1 January 2008. Ole Rønning is the project team's director, and reports to Gassnova's management group. The project group is co-located with Gassnova's staff in Porsgrunn. The project group will be in charge of pre-planning, technology qualification and the preparation of contract strategy and tender documents. In the course of the project period, the necessary contracts and agreements must be made, and required permits obtained from the authorities.

Upcoming steps

Gassnova SF shall present the documents on which the investment decision is to be based to the government in autumn 2009. This recommendation will also include updated financial estimates. – We shall now enable the qualified contractors to design the plant and thus obtain a sound basis for cost calculations. We assume that the contractors will attempt to develop effective and efficient solutions for capturing CO₂ from the gas-fired power plant at Kårstø, Managing Director Haugan comments

Gassnova SF has chosen to collaborate with the German company Fichtner GmbH & Co. KG as the Owner's Engineer for the CO₂ Kårstø project. Fichtner has already established a project group of 12 persons to work on the Kårstø project, most of whom are stationed at Fichtner's main office in Stuttgart, Germany. Furthermore, Norsk Energi was chosen to carry out an impact assessment. This work will begin sometime in March. We also wish to underline that there will be no activities at Kårstø in connection with the FEED studies. The work linked to front end engineering and design will be performed in the participating companies' own facilities. There will not be any activities worth talking about at Kårstø until the investment decision has been made, Bjørn-Erik Haugan concludes.

Contact persons:
Managing Director Bjørn-Erik Haugan, / +47 - 905 53 394
Manager of Communication Liv Lønne Dille, / +47 - 481 14 088
Project Director for the CO₂ Kårstø project Ole Rønning, / +47 - 913 32 540