Shell has struck a deal with East Mediterranean-focused company Energean to evaluate carbon capture and storage opportunities in Egypt.

The supermajor is a key player in Egypt, a country that Energean entered in 2021 after acquired the upstream assets of Italy's Edison.

Under a memorandum of understanding signed yesterday in Cairo, the two companies agreed to explore “a mutually beneficial decarbonisation solution.”

Energean will build on its experience in designing a CCS solution in Greece based on using its depleted Prinos oilfield.

The proposed partnership aims to address a major CCS challenge which, said Energean, is the ability to connect sizeable carbon emitters to an adequate geological structure.

The study will focus on the decarbonisation of the liquefied natural gas terminal at Idku on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast, by capuring and storing the carbon dioxide in a depleted reservoir in Energean’s Abu Qir offshore concession.

Future development stages would aim to allow other industrial emitters to use the facility.

According to Energean, one of the reasons Egypt has “undoubted CCS potential” is because its depleted gas fields are well understood and lie adjacent to much newer production facilities

The country is also rich in infrastructure, skills and experience that could be applied to CCS, said the London-listed player.

Commenting on the MoU, Nicolas Kacharov, chief executive of Energean International and the company’s Egypt country manager, said: “CCS in Egypt can only be developed in long term partnerships with industries willing to green their products.”

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