Adnoc builds CCS portfolio with Storegga stake

Reuters/Satish Kumar

• First international CCS investment
• $15bn for low-carbon plans
• Storegga part of UK’s Acorn project

Abu Dhabi’s state oil company, Adnoc, has taken a 10 percent equity stake in Storegga, a UK developer of decarbonisation and hydrogen projects.

The deal is Adnoc’s first international equity investment in a carbon management platform. The total amount of the investment was not disclosed.

Storegga is one of the joint venture partners behind the Acorn CCS project, based at the St Fergus gas terminal in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. The project is designated as a European project of common interest to help the UK and Europe meet net zero targets. 

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The project has the potential to store at least half of the 10 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) of CO2 targeted by the UK government’s plan for a green “industrial revolution” by 2030 and is highly scalable. 

Adnoc has allocated $15 billion (AED55 billion) for low-carbon solutions and decarbonisation technologies as it targets a carbon-capture capacity (CCS) of 10 mtpa by 2030, equivalent to taking two million internal combustion vehicles off the road. 

CCS has become a vital climate mitigation technology, especially for hard-to-abate industries such as cement, power generation, and oil and gas.

Musabbeh Al Kaabi, Adnoc’s executive director for low carbon solutions and international growth, said carbon capture was important for meeting global climate goals as the company worked towards reaching net zero by 2045.

Adnoc also hopes CCS can become a profitable business line.

In the UAE, Adnoc operates Al Reyadah, the first commercial-scale operation to capture and store CO2 from the steel industry, with a capacity of 800,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The company is also looking to develop a CCS portfolio in the US and Mexico. In August, it made an agreement with Occidental Petroleum to evaluate investment opportunities in direct-air capture and CCS hubs in the United States and the UAE.

It awarded Petrofac a $600 million deal for its Habshan CCUS project last October. In total, Adnoc’s current commitment to CCS is close to four mtpa.

Adnoc’s investment is part of Storegga’s latest round of funding.

“This funding round will enable further progress across our portfolio, including the Acorn CCS and Cromarty Hydrogen projects in the UK, Trudvang CCS in Norway, and Harvest Bend CCS in Louisiana,” said Storegga’s CEO, Nick Cooper.