Copenhagen, Feb 7 (IANS): The first permits are in place for extensive carbon storage in the Danish part of the North Sea, the government here said.

From 2030 onward, up to 13 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year may be pumped underground, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities as saying on Monday.

"The Danish underground has opened the doors to a new green business adventure with a customer base stretching across Europe," Energy Minister Lars Aagaard said in a statement.

The first permits for large-scale CO2 storage have gone to the companies INEOS, Wintershall DEA and TotalEnergies, which estimate that up to 13 million tonnes of CO2 annually will be stored into the Danish underground from 2030.

"The industrialisation of carbon storage means that it will now be bigger than we can do ourselves and that it will be cheaper for us to reach our climate targets," the Minister said.

Aagaard noted that efforts to capture and store carbon dioxide are being made elsewhere besides the North Sea.

As part of a pilot project resulting from the agreement on framework conditions for carbon storage in Denmark, Gas Storage Denmark is getting ready to store carbon dioxide onshore.