NaTran is launching a call for expressions of interest in Hauts-de-France, Grand Est, Normandy, and Île-de-France for its inter-regional CO₂ transport project

The aim is to assess requirements and determine how much interest there would be in such infrastructure. The initiative involves economic stakeholders in the regions concerned being consulted. These include industrial companies, waste management companies, operators of biomass heating plants, incinerators and methanisation facilities, as well as developers of projects to recover CO₂. This inter-regional project, extending over approximately 1,000 km, will link together the CO₂ capture and utilisation initiatives of the four regions. The captured CO₂ may also be routed to the port of Dunkirk, from where it could be shipped to permanent geological storage facilities in the North Sea. In June 2024, NaTran and Equinor (Norway’s state-owned company and a European pioneer in CO₂ storage) entered into a partnership to develop a transport and permanent storage chain for CO₂, connecting Dunkirk with storage sites in the North Sea.

NaTran is spearheading this inter-regional CO₂ transport project in Hauts-de-France, Grand Est, Normandy, and Île-de-France. This infrastructure is designed to link the principal CO₂ emission areas in the northeastern quarter of France. Captured CO₂ from industrial firms, waste management operators, and biomass, incineration, or methanisation facilities will be transported via underground pipelines to CO₂ usage sites and to the port of Dunkirk. Enabled by NaTran’s DKHARBO project and its partnership with Equinor’s CO₂ Highway Europe initiative, the CO₂ will be conveyed through a subsea pipeline to permanent geological storage sites in Norway’s North Sea.

Supporting the energy transition across the regions, this network project will eventually transport up to 10 million tonnes of CO₂ annually, from fossil and biogenic sources, equivalent to 13% of the French manufacturing sector’s emissions. Beyond the main industrial hubs and waste and biomass utilisation sites addressed by this call for interest, the project is designed as scalable infrastructure, enabling the stepwise connection of CO₂-emitting sites and accelerating their decarbonisation. NaTran has already conducted a pre-feasibility study on the proposed transport network. This is underpinned by potential studies conducted in collaboration with industrial partners or financed through ZIBAC programmes. It will form a backbone network spanning much of northeastern France which, beyond decarbonisation, will enhance industrial appeal and promote synergies across the regions through which it passes and their stakeholders.

Through this call for expressions of interest, NaTran seeks to assess market needs and the economic potential that such infrastructure could offer to industrial firms and, more broadly, to CO₂ emitters and users. More specifically, NaTran aims to confirm the projected volumes from emitting sites as well as the potential for CO₂ use. This call for expressions of interest also aims to identify all relevant stakeholders, including more dispersed ones situated beyond the industrial hubs of Hauts-de-France, Grand Est, Normandy, and Île-de-France. In addition to CO₂-emitting sites pursuing fossil or biogenic capture projects, this call for expressions of interest is also directed at developers of CO₂ usage projects, especially in e-fuels. Finally, this call also targets providers of CO₂ logistics solutions capable of connecting to the future transport infrastructure, thereby expanding beneficiaries across the regions: developers of multimodal CO₂ terminals, rail and barge transport, and other pipeline operators.

The call for expressions of interest runs from 16 December 2025 to 28 February 2026. Interested project developers may submit their response through an online form on NaTran’s website.

This call for expressions of interest is a non-binding stage. Drawing on the interest expressed by the local industrial ecosystem, NaTran will initiate an in-depth technical feasibility study of the infrastructure.

According to Anthony Mazzenga, Director of Development at NaTran, “decarbonising French industry is a key priority to secure the long-term viability of our companies and to protect employment and national sovereignty. Our teams are actively developing multiple CO₂ networks to transport residual emissions that cannot be eliminated through other decarbonisation pathways, while also harnessing biogenic CO₂. The aim of this project, designed to span the northeastern quarter of France through a shared and open infrastructure, is consistent with this vision”. 

It's worth remembering that the European Union has identified CO₂ capture, storage and utilisation as a strategic pathway for achieving net zero by 2050¹. France, meanwhile, has emphasised that CCUS technology is particularly appropriate for capturing and storing the industry’s unavoidable residual emissions².

¹ Net-Zero Industry Act, May 2024
² July 2024: : Link to entreprises.gouv.fr (news)