Northern Lights announced on its official website on April 9 that, the Northern Phoenix was officially blessed in Bergen this week, marking another milestone in the development of its CO₂ transport infrastructure.
The ship is purpose-built for the safe and efficient transport of liquefied CO₂ and is an addition to the Northern Lights fleet, supporting the scaling of carbon capture and storage across Europe. Northern Phoenix is dedicated to transporting CO₂ from Yara and will play a key role in enabling the start of commercial cross-border operations.
“With our first two ships already in operation, Northern Phoenix marks the next step in scaling our CO2 shipping capacity. We look forward to continuing to grow our fleet and enabling safe and reliable CO2 transport across Europe,” says Tim Heijn, Managing Director of Northern Lights JV.
The naming ceremony took place at Festningskaien in Bergen, attended by partners, stakeholders and invited guests. The ship was blessed by its godmother, Linn Hamre, one of the first Northern Lights employees, selected through an internal initiative to appoint a godmother from within the organisation.
Northern Phoenix will transport captured CO₂ from Yara to the Northern Lights receiving terminal in Øygarden, Norway, where it will be safely stored beneath the seabed.
Following the ceremony, the ship will start final preparations and commissioning ahead of operations.
Since late 2024, Northern Lights has successively taken delivery of three 7,500-cubic-meter LCO2 carrier sister vessels—the Northern Pioneer, Northern Pathfinder, and Northern Phoenix—while a fourth vessel of the same class is expected to be delivered and chartered to Northern Lights in 2026.
This batch of four 7,500-cubic-meter LCO2 carriers was jointly constructed and delivered by Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Corporation (DSIC) and Dalian Shipbuilding Offshore Co. (DSOC). They constitute a key component of the Phase I development of the Norwegian government’s “Longship Project.” The first three vessels—which have already been delivered and entered service following the conclusion of agreements with initial commercial clients—are currently managed by Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL); the fourth vessel, currently under construction, will be managed by Bernhard Schulte, a subsidiary of the Schulte Group.
It is reported that on January 29, 2026, Northern Lights announced via its official website charter agreements for four new LCO2 carriers. These four new vessels will be jointly owned by Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K-Line), MISC Berhad, and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL); they will be constructed by DSIC and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries. Delivery is expected to take place between the second half of 2028 and the first half of 2029, at which point the vessels will officially commence charter services for the Northern Lights project. The first three vessels in this new batch will each feature a cargo tank capacity of 12,000 cubic meters.