Norway's greenhouse gas emissions in 2024

In June each year, Statistics Norway releases preliminary estimates of the previous year's emissions in Norway, including revisions for all years back to 1990. However, this preliminary release has very little detail. Here I unpack more of what happened in 2024, using other data sources that are available.

This is what Statistics Norway's estimates look like, divided into their eight sectors. In recent years we see declines in the Oil and Gas sector, along with Industry, Road Transport, and Energy Supply. In 2024 we see a 3.5% drop in total emissions (3.8% when adjusted for the leap year in 2024).

Sector: Oil and Gas Extraction

Monthly data here are approximate

Emissions in the oil and gas sector declined by 4.9% (leap-year adjusted) in 2024, continuing their decline of recent years.

There are dozens of facilities in Norway's oil and gas sector. Here I discuss the reasons for changes in emissions in 2024 for the sites whose changes were in the top ten in absolute terms. Note that there are some differences here with the numbers reported in the Emissions Trading Scheme: the 'boundary' is not always the same.

Explore more charts for all of Norway's oil and gas facilities on my custom webpage here.

Åsgard: -109 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Åsgard declined by 108.7 kt (14.3%) to reach 653.9 kt in 2024. This decline was due to planned maintenance for about four weeks in August and September of 2024, along with the permanent closure of the platform's amine plant. Amine is used to strip excess CO₂ from natural gas, and the process requires energy to release the captured CO₂ from the amine again. The CO₂ was then vented to the atmosphere. This processing has now shifted to Kårstø and vented CO₂ has dropped zero at Heimdal at the same time as less natural gas is used to generate the energy required.

Ekofisk: +107 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Ekofisk rose by 107.2 kt (18.7%) in 2024 to reach 681.7 kt. This increase was due to greater use of natural gas to generate electricity. However, the production at the site actually declined in 2024, and the reason for the increase in electricity generation was the new field Tommeliten A, which is connected to the Ekofisk platform. "In October 2023 the Tommeliten A field started production. This is a new seafloor construction with tie-in to the Ekofisk field. Production boring began at the end of September 2022 and was complete in the first quarter of 2024" [source].

Troll: -87 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Troll declined by 87.0 kt (15.9%) to reach 459.4 kt in 2024, largely due to partial electrification, which occurred in April of 2024. The platforms are now connected to the mainland grid via a 132 kV subsea power cable to Kollsnes, northwest of Bergen [source].

Heimdal: -82 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Heimdal declined by 81.6 kt (100%) in 2024. Heimdal produced natural gas and some oil until June 2020, but continued to operate as a gas-processing centre until the middle of 2023. At that point the ageing infrastructure and increased maintenance led to the final shut down of the platform, and gas processing was rerouted to Kvitebjørn. Heimdal was "a hub for dry gas transport from Oseberg, in addition to processing production from fields such as Atla, Skirne, Vale, Valemon and Huldra" [source]

Sleipner Øst: -61 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Sleipner Øst declined by 61.5 kt (13.6%) in 2024, to reach 391.9 kt. The platform was partially electrification in September 2024. Power from the shore is supplied via the Gina Krog platform [source].

Norne: -52 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Norne declined by 52.1 kt (20.4%) to reach 203.5 kt in 2024. This field is in its decline phase, nearing the end of its productive life, and production of natural gas dropped by 62% in 2024.

Gina Krog: -47 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Gina Krog declined by 47.2 kt (80.1%), reaching 11.7 kt. The platform was connected to power from the shore in September 2023, resulting in a considerable drop in the use of natural gas in turbines. In addition, the floating storage and offloading (FSO) unit - basically a parked ship that transfers oil off the platform - was replaced with a dedicated oil pipline in October 2024. The replacement of this stationary ship led to reduced use of both natural gas and diesel at the site.

Kårstø: -46 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at the Kårstø gas-processing facility north of Stavanger declined by 45.7 kt (-6.3%) to reach 681.0 kt in 2024. This decline was largely because of scheduled maintenance in 2024.

Melkøya: -44 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Melkøya declined by 44.3 kt (5.1%) to reach 832.2 kt in 2024. The reason is unclear, with production of LNG actually increasing in 2024. There is a clear, steady decline through 2024 in emissions from the use of natural gas to generate electricity at the plant.

Aasta Hansteen: +35 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Aasta Hansteen increased by 34.5 kt (19.9%) to reach 207.9 kt in 204. This was largely due to scheduled maintenance that lowered emissions in 2023.

Sector: Manufacturing Industries and Mining

Norwegian companies report their emissions to the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), and these are available as "verified emissions" in early April each year on the European Commission's website [link]. Here I discuss the reasons for changes in emissions in selected Norwegian facilities with large changes between 2023 and 2024.

Elkem Salten: -195 kt CO₂

Elkem Salten's silicon smelting plant saw CO₂ emissions decline of 194.6 kt (59%) to reach 133.7 kt in 2024. The cause of this decline in emissions was a fire that broke out on 10 December 2023 and caused very substantial damage. The first smelting oven came back on line in late January 2024 [source], and the second in April 2024 [source]. The third oven was very badly damanged and "has to be rebuilt completely" [source].

Tjeldbergodden: -127 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at the Tjeldbergodden methanol plant declined by 127.3 kt (61%) to reach 82.9 kt in 2024. The plant underwent its largest ever maintenance work, starting 13 April 2024 and originally schedulated to end 21 July, but continued until late in the year [source] [source].

Yara Porsgrunn: -80 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at Yara's ammonia plant in Porsgrunn declined by 79.9 kt (8%) to reach 885.1 kt in 2024. It appears that this was a result of maintenance downtime, but potentially also the start of the green hydrogen facility, which uses Europe's largest electrolyser to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The renewable hydrogen plant was officially opened in June 2024, and is expected to cut 41 kt CO₂ per year [source].

Ineos Tyssedal: +73 kt CO₂

Emissions of CO₂ at the Tyssedal titanium plant increased by 72.9 kt (41%) to reach 251.2 kt in 2024. This plant refines ilmenite to produce titanium for the market, using a smelter. The smelting process uses coal for chemical reduction (removal of oxygen). The plant was purchased from Eramet in September 2023 by INEOS. The reason for the increase in emissions in 2024 is a return to more normal levels are very low emissions in 2023. The decline in 2023 was caused by much lower production [source], which in turn was driven by scheduled decadal maintenance in the first half of the year, starting mid-February and lasting "2.5 months" [source]. But production was also reduced "to limit the impact of rising energy prices", the furnace capacity already having been reduced prior to the maintenance shutdown [source].

Sector: Road Transport

Statistics Norway's data show a continued decline in emissions from the Road Transport sector, by 6.4% (adjusted for the leap year).

The preliminary results from Statistics Norway only tell us what has happened with the Road Transport sector as a whole, but it's clear that the Passenger Cars subsector is where the action is. Battery-electric passenger cars made up 88% of total sales in 2024, and reached 25% of the on-road fleet [source] [source]. Electric cars are driven further on average than diesel and petrol cars, and accounted for 31% of distance travelled in 2024.

But it's not just electric cars, because Norway mandates blending of biofuels in with petrol and diesel sold at the pump. The supplied biofuels must meet requirements for how much they reduce global emissions compared to their fossil equivalents. In Norway they count as zero emissions when combusted. The mandated minimum blending was increased from 17% to 19% from the start of 2024, which will have led further to less use of fossil road fuels last year. However, Miljødirektoratet has not yet published the biofuel sales data for 2024.

The third piece of the puzzle is interesting. On 1 January 2024, Sweden dramatically reduced its own biofuel mandates, with the reduction obligation for diesel reduced from 30.5% to 6% overnight. The reason this has an effect on Norway is that it led directly to a 20% drop in diesel prices in Sweden, and that has led to more fuel that is used on Norway's roads being purchased in Sweden. The reason that's important is that national emissions accounts for road transport are required by international rules to use sales of petroleum products to determine total emissions in the sector. This means that the officially reported decline in road transport emissions in 2024 will be larger than the actual decline in emissions in Norway's territory.

Sector: Other Transport

The Other Transport sector is dominated by domestic shipping, offroad vehicles and machines, domestic aviation, and fishing. Statistics Norway's estimates show this sector's emissions declined by 3.0% in 2024 (leap-year adjusted).

The data for domestic aviation give a mixed message, with Avinor's data for passengers flying domestically showing a small increase of 1.7% in 2024, while the data for sales of jet kerosene show a decline of 4.3%. However, the monthly petroleum sales data are sometimes revised quite heavily, and the annual data show an increase of 3.7%.

For domestic shipping, the introduction of a new minimum requirement for blended biofuels of 6% from 1 October 2023 will have lowered emissions in that subsector in 2024.

Sector: Agriculture

Emissions in Norway's agriculture sector have been remarkably stable over the years, despite quite significant changes in the industry. There has been a steady decline in the number of dairy cows in the country as each cow produces more milk each year on average, and to replace the declining supply of beef from those dairy cows, a new beef industry has arisen. Emissions have been effectively transferred from the dairy sector to the beef sector, with little overall effect.

In 2023 we saw a small decline in Agricultural emissions as a result of (i) higher artificial fertiliser prices leading farmers to use less of it, and therefore generating less nitrous oxide (N2O), and (ii) Tine forecasting lower domestic demand for milk and reducing the milk quota, which led to a reduction in the size of the dairy herd. In 2024, fertiliser prices dropped again, and milk demand surged such that Tine removed the quota entirely in 2024. These factors appear to have led to a small increase in emissions in 2024, although not recovering to their 2022 levels: once dairy cows are slaughtered, they can't be replaced immediately when market conditions change. In fact, the increase in emissions is so small that it reverts to zero when you adjust for the leap year (equivalent to saying that the increase was worth one day's emissions).

Sector: Energy supply

In most countries the Energy Supply sector is one of the largest, since it includes power generation. In Norway this is a small sector and getting smaller. Most of the emissions in this sector now come from Norway's waste incineration plants. The gas-fired power station at Kårstø shut down in 2011, and the gas-fired generation at Mongstad was removed in 2022. The coal-fired power station in Longyearbyen closed on 19 October 2023, which means its emissions were zero in 2024. It has been replaced temporarily with a diesel generator, which was reported to have about 30% lower emissions (down from 75 kt per year to 53 kt [source]). The main driver for closing the coal-fired power plant was concern about age and ongoing maintenance costs [source]. Diesel is a temporary solution towards use of renewable sources supported by a battery (already installed in mid-2023 [source]). The coal station will remain standing for emergency use.

Statistics Norway's figures show a decline of 4.9% (leap year adjusted) in 2024. The chart below shows the detail from last November's final and more detailed release. We will have to wait until November to extend this chart through 2024.

Sector: Other

SSB's "Other" sector is mainly composed of two sources: emissions from landfills and emissions of fluorinated gases. The trends of these two components were opposite for many years, the growth in one offsetting the decline in the other. Emissions from landfills are declining steadily because no more organic matter is being added to Norwegian landfills, and the existing organic matter is gradually decomposing.

Meanwhile, emissions of fluorinated gases (used for example in refrigeration equipment and air conditioners) were growing strongly, offsetting declines in landfill emissions. Estimation of emissions of fluorinated gases is particularly difficult and they must be treated as highly uncertain. The growth in these gases between 1990 and about 2012 is a result of the phase in of new gases that do not damage the ozone layer, as those that did damage the ozone layer were phased out.

Norway's greenhouse gas emissions in 2024

Sector: Oil and Gas Extraction

Åsgard: -109 kt CO2

Ekofisk: +107 kt CO2

Troll: -87 kt CO2

Heimdal: -82 kt CO2

Sleipner Øst: -61 kt CO2

Norne: -52 kt CO2

Gina Krog: -47 kt CO2

Kårstø: -46 kt CO2

Melkøya: -44 kt CO2

Aasta Hansteen: +35 kt CO2