“Consideration for the environment does not come before competition rules,” European Commissioner Neelie Kroes has told a Norwegian delegation hoping to bestow stately funds on CCS technology — or carbon sequestration (scrubbing, removal) and storage — for a gas power plant in Norway.

Though not a European Union member, Norway is part of the European Economic Area, and must abide by EU rules to access the Continental trade block. The EU’s hatching of new rules to govern state support for CCS will be delayed a month to late January 2008.

The Dutch Kroes and her Competition Bureau could sink a first attempt by Oslo to seek Brussels’s support for CCS at Mongstad in the Norwegian southwest, site of a gas plant.

According to newspaper Aftenposten, the Kroes and the EU were still keen to ensure some stately support for CCS.

In Norway, it is understood that StatoilHydro and four suppliers lead the charge to coin carbon-cleaning patents, while classification society Det Norske Verittas has been hired by Aker Kvaerner to benchmark its sprocesses.

In Germany, Linde, RWE Power and BASF are known to be after an industrial solvent for carbon.

ws@scandoil.com

Tags: Aker Kvaerner, Det Norske Veritas, Gassnova, Mitsubishi, StatoilHydro