Malaysia will emerge as regional hub for carbon capture and storage (CCS) and is forging international partnerships to make sure this happens, according to Tengku Muhammad Taufik, chief executive of state-run Petronas.
Several depleted gas fields have been identified as candidates to apply CCS technologies store carbon dioxide not only from oil and gas operations but also from other industry emitters in the region, Taufik told a panel at CERAWeek by S&P Global.
“The ambition is not only to serve Malaysia storage of high emission industries but also others, in Asia particularly [members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations,” he said.
Over the past two years, Petronas has signed outline agreements with Shell, ExxonMobil, Japan Petroleum Exploration, Posco International, Mitsu & Co, a Korean consortium led by Samsung Engineering, DNV and Mitsui OSK Lines to jointly pursue CCS activation projects in Malaysia.
Petronas was the first oil and gas company in Southeast Asia to declare a net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 ambition and has said CCS will be an important tool for decarbonising oil and gas production.
Last year, the company said it reduced green house gas emissions by 29% through CCS and physical decarbonisation of its existing facilities by cutting down venting and flaring to reduce methane emissions.
By 2025, the company plans to take another 11.6 million tonnes of CO2 of emissions from existing fields. It is also aiming to achieve zero venting from its oil and gas fields by 2024, and zero routine flaring by 2030.
Upstream has reported that Malaysian Petroleum Management has identified an estimated 46 trillion cubic feet of potential carbon storage capacity across 16 depleted fields which surpasses Malaysia’s forecast of upstream CO2 emissions.
Taufik stated his belief that the energy transition must be policy driven, especially when it come to providing incentives to offer the right business model for partnerships, for financing and for allowing emissions to be dealt with collectively.
“We have to look at regional energy security with different lenses now,” he said, adding that cross-border solutions make sense considering emissions do the same thing.
“There is only one atmosphere,” he said.
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