Microsoft has signed a 15-year agreement to purchase 626,000 tonnes of durable carbon dioxide removal credits from the North Star BECCS project in Saskatchewan, Canada, making it the company’s first Canadian bioenergy with carbon capture and storage offtake deal. The agreement was announced by Svante and the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, which are developing the project through North Star Carbon Solutions LP. The structure is also being described as the first BECCS-based carbon removal project in Canada involving Indigenous ownership.

The deal matters because it expands Microsoft’s carbon removal strategy into a new geography and a new ownership model at a time when the company is already one of the largest corporate buyers in the market. It also shows how long-term offtake contracts are increasingly being used to help move carbon removal projects from development toward financeable infrastructure by creating more predictable future demand. That broader conclusion is an inference based on the 15-year structure and the way Svante framed Microsoft’s commitment as an anchor offtake.

A Canadian BECCS Project Built on Existing Biomass Infrastructure

The North Star project will be developed at the existing MLTC Bioenergy Centre, a forestry biomass cogeneration facility operated in partnership with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council. At full scale, the project is expected to generate up to 90,000 tonnes of carbon removal credits annually over the 15-year term, with the captured carbon dioxide transported and permanently stored at a geological storage site owned and operated by North Star. The credits are expected to be independently verified under applicable carbon removal standards and backed by monitoring, reporting, and verification practices.

This is important because the project is not being built around a purely hypothetical carbon removal concept. It is being attached to an operating bioenergy system that already produces renewable heat and electricity from forestry waste biomass, which gives the BECCS model a stronger industrial base than many early-stage removal concepts. In practical terms, Microsoft is buying into a project that combines existing biomass operations with a carbon capture layer and permanent underground storage, making it a more infrastructure-led form of carbon removal. That interpretation is an inference from the project’s integration with the MLTC Bioenergy Centre.

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Indigenous Ownership Gives the Deal Wider Significance

One of the most notable aspects of the agreement is the Indigenous ownership element. Svante says North Star Carbon Solutions LP is a partnership with the Meadow Lake Tribal Council, and the transaction is believed to be the first Canadian BECCS carbon removal project involving Indigenous ownership. Microsoft also described the deal as supporting an Indigenous-led collaboration that can help bring durable carbon removal infrastructure online in Canada.

That matters because carbon removal projects are increasingly being judged not only by durability and verification, but also by ownership structure, community participation, and the distribution of economic value. In this case, the project is being framed not just as a climate infrastructure asset, but as a pathway that connects carbon markets with Indigenous participation in project development and long-term infrastructure value creation. That broader significance is an inference, but it is supported by the way Microsoft and Svante describe the partnership.

Microsoft Continues to Build a Large-Scale Removal Portfolio

The agreement also fits into Microsoft’s wider carbon removal strategy. Recent reporting notes that Microsoft disclosed agreements totaling a record 45 million metric tons of carbon dioxide removal in 2025, reinforcing its position as the largest known corporate purchaser of carbon removal credits. The new North Star contract is smaller than some of its other deals, but it adds a new project type and geographic footprint to a portfolio that increasingly spans different pathways and delivery models.

This diversification is significant because the carbon removal market is still too early and too supply-constrained for large buyers to depend on one pathway alone. By adding a 15-year Canadian BECCS agreement to its portfolio, Microsoft is effectively spreading procurement across more technologies, ownership models, and jurisdictions while continuing to prioritize projects with durable storage and strong verification. That is an inference from the company’s broader buying pattern and the details of this agreement.

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The Deal Shows How Carbon Removal Finance Is Becoming More Structured

The broader takeaway from the North Star agreement is that durable carbon removal is starting to look more like long-term infrastructure contracting and less like an experimental voluntary market purchase. A 15-year offtake agreement tied to a project with existing industrial inputs, geological storage, and formal verification plans indicates a more structured phase of market development. Buyers are not only purchasing credits. They are helping create the revenue certainty that can support project buildout.

For the market, that is an important signal. It suggests that future growth in BECCS and other durable removal pathways may depend increasingly on large buyers willing to commit early and over long durations. Microsoft’s 626,000-tonne agreement is not just a procurement deal. It is also a sign that the next phase of carbon removal scaling will be shaped by who is willing to underwrite supply before it is fully built.

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