Known CO2 competencies are a new opportunity for IKM Ocean Team

From exporting bacon and butter to a fishing town, oil and gas and now also offshore wind, green hydrogen, CO2 storage and other green transitions.

Esbjerg has developed over time as supply and demand have changed – the same applies to IKM Ocean Team, which has followed the market and customers in the global energy sector from the cadastre at the port of Esbjerg since 1995.

This is explained by Benjamin Lorenzen, deputy director of IKM Ocean Team A/S.

“It is an organic, fluid transition, and we must constantly stay up to date – and must also remember to look up from our own duck pond. The world is big, and things are constantly changing. Therefore, it is positive for us to see that our competencies in servicing well-known sectors such as the oil and gas industry can be given new life, for example in the entire value chain for CO2 capture, utilization and storage,” says Benjamin Lorenzen.

CO2 as a position of strength
In 2022, the West Jutland company became part of the Norwegian IKM, which with several thousand employees is one of the largest service providers in Northern Europe. The acquisition was, among other things, about integrating the West Jutland competences within the handling of CO2 into the Norwegian group.

“A typical task for us could be, for example, cleaning extremely long and narrow pipe systems, which are often found in connection with production wells offshore. The systems tend to stop up or block as a result of impurities or chemical reactions that occur over time. Here we use CO2 to clean the pipes effectively, so that the systems continue to function as they should,” says Benjamin Lorenzen and continues:

“We have fine-tuned this competence for many years, and can now utilize it in another, new phase in the energy sector. We have unique patented solutions and a position of strength within the work with CO2, which we can use again when it comes to CO2 capture, utilization and storage, which is gaining ground in new demonstration projects in the North Sea. In other words, a healthy, proven business base will benefit us in the green transition,” says Benjamin Lorenzen.

What you give, you get in return
In addition to skills from many years of work with oil and gas, IKM Ocean Team has developed professional CO2 skills in partnerships with others. This has happened, for example, in the innovation project COLLATE, which is about the materials that will help seal the CO2 that Denmark plans to store in the North Sea subsoil.

“In the innovation project, we have collaborated with researchers and other companies with skills that we do not have in-house. It has been intense and complex, and has also been a new way of working with development for us,” says Benjamin Lorenzen:

“We have moved away from financing all development ourselves – it has been a heavy burden that has brought us a long way. But by participating in a structured development project with others, which Energy Cluster Denmark has supported, we are getting further and faster. We have wholeheartedly entered the project with knowledge and skills from our own backs, with a mantra that what you give, you get back. That approach has borne fruit, and we are coming away from the COLLATE project with stronger skills and an even better network in the industry. Relationships are essential for us. It is networks that create trust from our partners and customers, that we can learn from, and with which we can solve tasks for and create innovative solutions in the future. We are moving in step with developments, and want to play an active role in the green transition,” says Benjamin Lorenzen.