Middle East has the keys to unlock carbon capture

Humdrum issues such as modular construction and international standards will go a long way to encouraging more carbon capture and storage (CCS), according to delegates at Oman Sustainability Week in Muscat this month.

Modular approaches should help cut costs on everything from maintenance to transport to engineering. International standards, meanwhile, on what constitutes low-carbon fuel or what, if any, leakage is acceptable from a capturing site will create a level playing field – and perhaps fend off the activist community.

At the moment, CCS is a bespoke undertaking – albeit one that it is fast taking off. Certification bodies exist but standardisation is not the norm.

At stake is a place in the fuels of the future. If producers can demonstrate that what they are selling to customers is zero or low-carbon, they will have a market – and enjoy high margin revenues – in the decades ahead. If they cannot, they are bottom fishing.

There also is the small business of carbon reduction commitments. As part of their Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement, the UAE, Qatar and Oman have pledged to cut their emissions by 40, 25 and 7 percent respectively by 2030 – five short years away. Saudi Arabia is committed to net zero emissions by 2060.

CCS has been around for a long time – since the 1930s – typically used as part of enhanced oil recovery techniques with a clear commercial purpose. Sonatrach, Statoil and BP started injecting CO2 at In Salah, Algeria, 20 years ago. Today roughly 120 projects are operational or under construction around the world, according to the delegates in Muscat. In the Middle East and Africa three are in operation and six are under construction, according to the Global CCS Institute.

Last year Aramco, Linde and SLB signed off on what they say will be one of the largest CCS hubs in the world, capable of capturing 9 million tonnes a year (mtpa), at Jubail in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has set an overall target of capturing and storing a whopping 44 mtpa by 2035.

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In the UAE, which is committed to the most aggressive reduction targets, Adnoc says it has allocated $15 billion for low-carbon and decarbonisation technologies. It is targeting CCS capacity of 10 mtpa by 2030, equivalent to taking 2 million petrol cars off the road.

Adnoc already runs the Al Reyadah scheme, which was launched in 2016, and the Habshan project, which recently reached final investment decision.

Earlier this year Adnoc bought a 10 percent stake in Storegga, a British CCS developer and a player in the Acorn project in Scotland.

Qatar has been operating a 2.2 mtpa CCS scheme at Ras Laffan since 2019. It aims to increase capacity to 11 mtpa by 2035.

In Oman, OQGN (Gas Networks) is planning a CO2 transport network to link emission sources with storage and utilisation sites.

There have been missteps. In 2007, Norway’s Mongstad carbon capture project was billed as the equivalent of a “moon landing”. But in 2013, its CCS ambitions were abandoned. In Western Australia, the Gorgon scheme, led by Chevron of the US, is reportedly toiling – although Chevron insists its technical problems can be solved. And the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has voiced concerns about CCS leakage, although it has been unequivocal that the technology has a major part to play in limiting emissions in the long term.

The Middle East is ideally placed to develop and benefit from the emerging consensus. Not only does the region offer cost advantages but it also has supportive geology. Adnoc is injecting CO2 into the Hajar mountains in Fujairah where the peridotite rock is capable of sequestering greenhouse gas, using technology developed by 44.01, an Omani startup.

In the medium term, the Abu Dhabi major may offer CCS capacity to customers in Asia and to businesses in hard-to-abate industries such as cement, power generation and oil and gas, a spokesman told AGBI in 2023. Now that is exciting.