“With this many stakeholders, you need to keep returning to common ground”

Mirjam Lammers, commercial lead at Aramis, is working with her legal and commercial colleagues to establish the CCS value chain. She discusses the importance of transparency, the satisfaction that comes from achieving tangible results and the need to always return to common ground.

Spokesperson
The Aramis joint team comprises professionals from Shell, TotalEnergies, Gasunie and EBN. Mirjam, originally from EBN, is the main point of contact for the commercial team. She explains, “I’m essentially the spokesperson, but I’m certainly not alone. There is an entire team behind me. I work with my legal and commercial colleagues to draft, develop and finalise the contracts and agreements required to bring the Aramis project to fruition at all levels.”

The multidisciplinary team convenes at least three times a week to ensure that all parties are heard and the collaboration runs smoothly.

In a previous role, Mirjam also worked on CO₂ storage. She sees her position at Aramis as an excellent opportunity to expand her expertise: “I want to make a real contribution to this groundbreaking project by ensuring it has a robust and well-thought-out foundation. It’s about getting things right from the start rather than having to fix them later.”

Many stakeholders with just as many interests
Mirjam and her team play a critical role in safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders in the CCS value chain. Broadly speaking, this chain consists of two parts: CO₂ storage and CO₂ transport. On the storage side, the shippers — Aramis’s direct customers — are responsible for managing the storage sites and injecting CO₂ into depleted gas fields, which are often owned by multiple partners.

On the transport side, a 200-kilometre pipeline will have to be constructed to transfer CO₂ to the storage sites. The CO₂ will be transported in liquid form through the CO2next terminal and as gas via the Porthos project. Mirjam and her colleagues will coordinate what is a complex value chain and must ensure that the interests of both transport and storage partners are adequately protected. But how do you effectively manage such an intricate project?

Finding common ground
According to Mirjam, successful collaboration between so many different parties necessitates continuous investment: “It ultimately comes down to people, so developing strong, constructive relationships is crucial. It means investing in open communication and respecting each other’s positions. Unlike before, we are no longer competitors. As we are attempting to create a value chain together, it is better to think of each other as pioneers rather than rivals.”

Mirjam emphasises the importance of continually reinforcing the common goal: “Stakeholders’ individual objectives don’t always align. In such situations, it’s essential to keep returning to common ground.”

The same information and conditions
Constructive collaboration can only take place when all parties have equal access to the same information and the process is fully transparent. Customers often ask if they will receive the same terms and conditions as others. The answer is yes: “Aramis is open-access and non-discriminatory, which means that we treat everyone equally.”

Aramis aims to achieve this by establishing general contractual terms that apply to everyone.

“We are currently finalising contracts and determining rates”, says Mirjam. “While parties are keen to reserve capacity in our system, it is too early for that. To manage this, however, we have introduced a reservation option that allows interested parties to reserve transport capacity while the details are being finalised.”

Like the drafting of the terms and conditions, the reservation system is fully transparent.

Transparency above all
As Aramis is still very much in development, there are instances when a definitive answer is simply not available: “Transparency also involves being honest and admitting that we don’t have an answer yet or adding a disclaimer to indicate that things might change or evolve.”

It is important to discuss this openly, regardless of who is sitting at the table.

Mirjam adds, “While the contracts and agreements are drafted by Aramis, this is done in close collaboration with our customers. That might just be the most transparent aspect of the entire process.”