Australian oil and gas company Santos has entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Abu Dhabi based oil and gas firm ADNOC to collaborate on carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects.
The agreement will explore the potential for establishing a platform offering decarbonization services to a broad range of energy users and includes potential collaboration on the development of CCS technologies; joint participation in global CCS projects; provision of CCS solutions to emitting companies across Asia including the development of shipping and transport infrastructure.
Santos Energy Solutions Executive Vice President Alan Stuart-Grant said the agreement highlighted the globally-recognized credibility of Santos’ growing CCS portfolio and the ongoing role for energy companies in delivering real decarbonization solutions to the large energy-consuming economies of Asia.
“Energy companies like Santos and ADNOC have been long-term energy suppliers to the Asian region and key to its energy security, industrial growth, and rising living standards,” Stuart-Grant said.
“Through collaboration, we can accelerate the region’s transition toward a low-carbon future that is both reliable and affordable. There is an enormous opportunity for traditional energy suppliers like Australia and the United Arab Emirates to be at the forefront of helping regional decarbonization through the utilization of our natural competitive advantages in carbon storage and energy supply chains.
“As demand for CO2 transport and storage grows, Santos continues to work with governments to urgently progress the necessary regulatory, fiscal, and carbon credit frameworks to support international collaboration on CCS to decarbonize our region.
“We know a large scale-up of CCS is required to meet the world’s climate objectives and companies like Santos and ADNOC have the technology, infrastructure and knowhow to be able to deliver low-cost CCS and low-carbon energy on a global scale.
“CCS is a proven technology that is critical to achieving climate goals throughout the region and this agreement with ADNOC positions Santos to accelerate the development and expansion of our CCS portfolio to meet the increasing demand for CCS in the region.”
Santos has a three-hub CCS strategy with the Moomba CCS project on track for first injection in 2024, front-end engineering and design (FEED) at Bayu-Undan CCS (offshore Timor Leste) nearing completion, and plans for Reindeer (offshore Western Australia) progressing well.
The International Energy Agency 2023 Net Zero Roadmap update assumes about 6 gigatonnes per year of storage from CCS will be required by 2050 – more than 100 times more than today’s operational capacity.
Santos said the IEA recognized Australia’s competitive advantage in CCS, saying earlier this year, “Australia is well-suited to large-scale deployment of CCS to facilitate domestic CO2 abatement and support regional emissions reductions.”
As for ADNOC, the company has allocated an initial $15 billion to advance and accelerate lower-carbon solutions by investing in new energies and decarbonisation technologies.
The company has ambitions to reach net zero by 2045 and has already announced the intention to capture up to 10 Mtpa of CO2 by 2030.