Greensand Opens Offshore Carbon Storage Chain in Denmark

Denmark now has a functioning capture, transport and storage chain. The arithmetic around the grant and supported volume helps size public support, but it still does not reveal the tariff or return needed for the project to scale.

INEOS and its partners have inaugurated Project Greensand in Denmark, creating what the project and European authorities describe as the EU's first commercial-scale, fully integrated chain for capturing, transporting and permanently storing carbon dioxide offshore.

The initial phase can handle up to roughly 400,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. INEOS says the broader site could eventually reach 4 million to 8 million tonnes annually. Those are different economic objects: operating capacity today versus development potential later.

The EU Innovation Fund has provided about €41 million of support. CINEA says the funded programme aims to store roughly 2.4 million tonnes over eight years. If that volume were spread evenly, it would average about 300,000 tonnes a year, equal to 75% of the initial 400,000-tonne annual capacity. The grant equates to roughly €17 for each tonne in the programme's planned eight-year volume.

The €17 figure is support intensity, not a storage price

The calculation does not reveal what customers pay Greensand. The grant supports the project as a whole and may cover fixed infrastructure that benefits uneven volumes over time. Storage tariffs, capture costs, ship utilization, invested capital and expansion capex remain undisclosed at the level needed for a project-return model.

Current EU carbon allowances around €87 a tonne provide an economic reference for emitters, but the allowance price is also not project revenue. A customer compares the full cost of capture, conditioning, transport and storage with allowances and other decarbonization options.

The physical chain has crossed a harder threshold

CO2 from Danish biomethane facilities is transported to Esbjerg, shipped roughly 250 kilometers offshore and injected into the depleted Nini West field about 1,800 meters below the seabed. Capture source, transport, permitted storage and long-term injection now exist as one operating system.

Greensand has answered the engineering question: capture, shipping and offshore injection can operate as one commercial chain. The economic question is narrower now. If the supported 2.4 million tonnes were spread evenly, they would fill about 75% of phase-one annual capacity; expansion toward several million tonnes needs customers willing to sustain high utilization at tariffs that finance more ships, wells and storage.

Sources

• INEOS, September 18 Project Greensand disclosure: https://www.ineos.com/news/shared-news/ineos-opens-the-first-full-scale-co%E2%82%82-storage-site-in-the-eu/
• European Commission CINEA, Greensand Future record: https://cinea.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/greensand-future-inaugurates-europes-first-commercial-offshore-co2-storage-facility-2026-09-18_en
• Financial Times, project economics: https://www.ft.com/content/ae8deb70-7173-4f1a-bb02-de43c40d9090