Shell Looking To Develop CCS In Southeast Asia

Oil supermajor Shell is exploring the feasibility of carbon transport and storage options in Brunei and Singapore.

This will be explored via a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Shell Eastern Petroleum and Brunei Shell Petroleum. This could potentially form part of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub in Southeast Asia.

Under the MoU, both parties will evaluate the technical and commercial feasibility of carbon storage options in Brunei and carbon transport solutions from Singapore.

The MoU will also enable cooperation between the two countries in developing relevant policies. This MoU complements efforts undertaken by the Government of Brunei Darussalam and Singapore to deepen cooperation in the areas of energy and green economy, such as CCS through an MoU signed in August this year.

“We are in a good position to leverage our existing relationships and track records in Brunei and Singapore to enable the development of a potential CCS hub in Southeast Asia,” said Agnete Johnsgaard-Lewis, the Managing Director of Brunei Shell Petroleum.

“CCS will help reduce CO2 emissions from our operations, as we transform our manufacturing footprint here into Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Singapore. It also offers a way to reduce emissions from hard-to-decarbonize industries, such as those found on Jurong Island. This will help Singapore cut its carbon footprint as we transition to a lower carbon economy,” Aw Kah Peng, the Chairman of Shell Companies in Singapore, added.

Shell’s target is to become a net-zero emissions energy business by 2050 and its ambition is to have access to at least 25 million tons a year of CCS capacity by 2035.

CCS involves the integration of proven technical elements – CO2 capture, compression, transport, and storage. Shell is a provider of CO2 capture technologies, and its shipping business has played an active role in the development and construction of the world’s first vessels specifically designed to carry liquid CO2 derived from CCS.

Shell also has a proven track record of helping to develop large-scale commercial projects that involve the full carbon capture and storage value chain such as building and operating Quest in Alberta, Canada, which has safely stored more than 7 million tons of CO2 since 2015 under budget and ahead of schedule.

Another example is partnering with Equinor and Total in Norway on the Northern Lights project to transport CO2 from industrial sources by ship to a central receiving hub and then send the CO2 through a pipeline to an offshore store.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com