France, Aug. 29 -- Environmental groups are warning that Norway's Northern Lights project - the world's first commercial offshore carbon storage scheme - could end up masking continued fossil fuel use. It began operations this week, pumping CO2 into a reservoir deep beneath the North Sea seabed.

The first injection came from Heidelberg Materials' cement plant in Brevik, in southeastern Norway.

"We now injected and stored the very first CO2 safely in the reservoir," Northern Lights managing director Tim Heijn said in a statement. "Our ships, facilities and wells are now in operation."

Northern Lights is run by oil companies Equinor, Shell and TotalEnergies.

The scheme collects CO2 from smokestacks across Europe, liquifies it and ships ...