Malaysia is targeting start-up of its first carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in 2025 and the second such development – also offshore Sarawak - is touted for the following year.
For Petronas Carigali’s Kasawari phase 2 project – the nation’s maiden CCS development – the extracted and compressed carbon dioxide will flow some 135 kilometres via a pipeline to the M1 field where it will be injected into a depleted reservoir.
Malaysia’s national oil company claims Kasawari will be the largest offshore CCS project in the world when it starts up, with 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide to be captured annually. A total of 76 million tonnes of CO2 from Kasawari will ultimately be injected at the M1 field, the company says.
Kasawari CCS (Kasawari phase 2) is targeting first injection in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Petronas plans to deploy technologies of its own on the project, including the PN2 hollow fibre membrane, Cryomin – cryogenic distillation for high CO2 concentrations – and corrosion prediction software for supercritical CO2, for both the capture and storage elements of the Kasawari CCS project.
The second CCS project in Malaysia will be for PTTEP’s Lang Lebah offshore field, which has in-place reserves of 5 trillion cubic feet of gas. This project will also involve the removal of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) in addition to CO2.
Produced gas from Lang Lebah will flow via pipeline to an onshore processing plant dubbed OGP-2, and the extracted CO2 will then be piped back offshore for injection at the depleted Golok field, according to Petronas’ Malaysia Petroleum Management (MPM) presentation at last week’s launch of the nation’s 2022 licensing round.
Upstream had reported in July 2021 that PTTEP was considering a CCS platform to be installed at the Golok field on its nearby Block SK 309, which would facilitate development of Lang Lebah and, potentially, other sour gas discoveries.
PTTEP last year performed a pipeline route survey at the Golok field in Malaysia’s exclusive economic zone, covering locations between the existing Golok GO-PA platform and the proposed Golok CCS platform.
Lang Lebah will be one of the key projects for the Sarawak Integrated Sour Gas Evacuation System (SISGES), which Petronas said will be a catalyst for the monetisation of high contaminant fields in the state of Sarawak.
The Lang Lebah field is located on Block SK 410B offshore Sarawak and is operated by Thailand’s national upstream company PTTEP on behalf of partners Petronas Carigali and Kufpec.
CCS storage for the region
The MPM said that more than an estimated 46 trillion cubic feet of potential carbon storage capacity has been identified across 16 of Malaysia’s depleted fields, which is more than ample for the nation’s forecast upstream CO2 emissions.
Eleven of these 16 potential CCS sites are at fields offshore Sarawak while the other five are located offshore Peninsular Malaysia.
In addition to offering storage solutions for domestic projects, Malaysia will make its excess storage capacity available to third parties, thereby establishing the nation as a regional CCS hub, said MPM senior vice president Mohamed Firouz Asnan.
“Sixty per cent of the storage capacity will be allocated to Malaysia – for Petronas and our partners – while the remaining 40% will be made available to other users,” he said.
“We are excited with this development to make Malaysia the CCS hub in the region.”
In tandem, Petronas is involved in ongoing studies aimed at increasing the nation’s carbon storage capacity to include saline aquifers.
Petronas has already signed memoranda of understanding with companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil, Cosco and Japex to explore possibilities and opportunities to provide CO2 storage solutions for Malaysia and the region.
The MPM said that it would facilitate the execution of CCS solutions by providing the “key enablers encompassing technical, commercial and regulatory aspects”.
