Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) has secured long-term charter contracts for two newbuild liquefied carbon dioxide carriers to support the expansion of the Northern Lights carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Europe.

The Japanese shipowner confirmed on 30 January that it has signed charter agreements with Northern Lights JV DA, alongside shipbuilding contracts concluded on 29 January with HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.

The vessels will each have a cargo capacity of 12,000 cubic metres and will be built to ice-class standards. They will feature LNG dual-fuel propulsion and are scheduled to enter service around 2028.

Once delivered, the ships will transport liquefied CO₂ captured at industrial facilities across Europe to Northern Lights’ receiving terminal at Øygarden on Norway’s west coast. From there, the CO₂ will be transferred via a subsea pipeline approximately 100 kilometres long and permanently injected at a depth of approximately 2,600 metres beneath the seabed in the North Sea.

Northern Lights is jointly owned by Equinor, TotalEnergies and Shell. The venture is regarded as the world’s first commercial cross-border CO₂ transport and storage project.

The project entered full-scale operation in 2025 with an initial annual transport and storage capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of CO₂. Northern Lights plans to increase capacity to at least five million tonnes per year by 2028.

According to MOL, the two new carriers will primarily be deployed on routes transporting captured CO₂ from the Stockholm Exergi carbon capture facility in Sweden to the Øygarden terminal.

MOL has been expanding its involvement in liquefied CO₂ transport in recent years. In 2021, the company acquired a stake in Larvik Shipping, which has several decades of operational experience in CO₂ shipping within Europe.

The shipowner said demand for liquefied CO₂ transport is expected to grow as carbon capture and storage develops in hard-to-abate industrial sectors. It added that the new vessels form part of its strategy to strengthen capabilities across the CCS value chain.

The project aligns with MOL Group’s environmental strategy, which targets growth in low-carbon and decarbonisation-related businesses alongside its core shipping activities.