Inspirational Brevik CCS Conference

This week the Brevik CCS-organization held their first non-digital conference at Quality Hotel in Langesund. The key focus was to align both internal and external partners in the project, and to build up the knowledge for the endeavours ahead.

Approximately 70 participants from Norcem and project partners were gathered in beautiful surroundings in Langesund, just a few kilometres outside of the Brevik plant.

Project Manager Tor Gautestad kicked off the conference highlighting the need for close collaboration and strong project control in the upcoming years. Gautestad also gave an up-to-date status on the project.

After Gautestad’s presentation, the conference continued with several internal speakers from both Norcem and HeidelbergCement. The key take-aways was to remember strict cost control and to keep time.

Thereafter, the contractors from Aker and the other key sub-contractors followed up with short status-updates on their parts of the project.
 
After lunch, a detailed plant visit was arranged, and all participants had a detailed tour of the factory. A highlight for many, as several participants has only been working on the project digitally the last year.

The first day of the conference ended with a joyful dinner, where the main goal was to build a stronger relationship between the participants outside of work. As Project Manager Tor Gautestad emphasised in the start of the day

• "The better we know each other the earlier we can raise concerns and voice opinons. In a project of this size, we need to address problems and challenges early, to reduce the risk of these maturing."

The second day of the conference was focused on understanding the CCS-project from a more holistic level. The experienced HC-duo of Per Brevik and Kjell Skjeggerud gave initial speeches about the long way from desk-top studies to realization, and the need for CCS in cement production. Per Brevik also showcased the other CCS/CCUS projects in the HeidelbergCement-portfolio.

At the end of the second day, several external shareholders gave inspirational speeches about the importance of the project. The stakeholders from respectively ministry, politics, industry organizations, NGOs and academia all underlined their strong support for the project and the key message to all was to give their best in the project since this is a landmark-project also for them.

To summarize; an inspirational first meet-up for the Brevik CCS-organisation.