KUCHING, Jan 11: Petronas has signed a Joint Study and Collaboration Agreement (JSCA) with Sarawak Shell Berhad (Shell) to explore opportunities and project collaborations in carbon capture and storage (CCS) to help provide carbon dioxide (CO2) storage solutions in Malaysia and the region.
Under the agreement, Petronas and Shell will perform an integrated CCS Area Development Plan study to support the decarbonisation ambitions of both parties within selected locations offshore Sarawak.
According to their media releases, the scope of the agreement includes exploring the provision of decarbonisation service to Shell’s local and cross-border facilities and other potential regional customers.
The study’s outcome will produce options in potential areas for further collaboration.
Signing the agreement on behalf of Petronas was its executive vice president and chief executive officer of Upstream, Adif Zulkifli, while Shell was represented by its Malaysia chairman and senior vice president of Upstream Malaysia, Ivan Tan.
With Petronas’ long-standing partnership with Shell, Adif expressed confidence that this latest collaboration will inspire more innovation towards managing carbon emissions and advancing their shared ambition of delivering energy solutions responsibly and sustainably.
“This collaboration underscores Petronas’ continuous efforts to explore partnership opportunities in CCS.
“We will continue this trajectory to unlock opportunities which could potentially help reduce emissions and achieve our net-zero carbon emissions aspirations. This is one of the many efforts to position and establish Malaysia as a leading CCS solutions hub in the region,” he said in a statement today.
Tan pointed out that this collaboration is an important first step in harnessing the potential of CCS as a decarbonisation solution for Malaysia and the region, in pursuit of the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“The transition to a lower-carbon energy system requires unprecedented collaboration. We deeply value our long-standing relationship with Petronas and believe that this partnership will leverage our respective capabilities to jointly develop reliable, technology-driven CCS solutions that could decarbonise our operations while significantly reducing emissions in Malaysia,” he said in a separate statement.
Both Shell and Petronas have been taking steps to transition towards lower-carbon energy sources and achieve Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050.
Last November, Petronas signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc to explore opportunities in CCS technologies to support the decarbonisation of Malaysia’s upstream industry to provide CO2 storage solutions for the region.
In December, an MoU was signed with POSCO International Corporation and POSCO Engineering & Construction Co Ltd to assess opportunities to unlock CCS potential and identify suitable technology within the scope of carbon capture, transportation of CO2 and storage for potential application.
Shell has started to transform its business to meet this target, providing more low-carbon energy such as biofuels and charging for electric vehicles as well as low-carbon electricity. However, where it is impossible to avoid emissions, such as in heavy manufacturing and heavy goods transportation, these emissions will need to be captured using technology.
Shell is pursuing innovative solutions to remove and store carbon safely using technologies such as CCS. Globally, Shell has been seeking CCS solutions, including for the Quest project in Canada (Shell-operated) and as part of a consortium for the Northern Lights CCS project in Norway.
CCS combines existing technologies that capture and store CO2 deep underground, preventing its release into the atmosphere. CO2 is separated from the gasses produced by industrial processes, transported to locations where it can be stored in geological repositories, deep underground, thus reducing emissions to the atmosphere. ― DayakDaily
