Page 10 - DMEA Week 46

DMEA COMMENTARY DMEA

US LNG developers
are including a CCS
agreements. G2 Net-Zero LNG, meanwhile, only Strzelecki gas field in the Cooper Basin as part component in their
proposed its LNG terminal – a cleaner redesign of the project’s final field trial. Once on stream, export projects.
of a previous plan – earlier this year and still has the 1.7mn tpy project promises to be one of the
some way to go until the facility can be built. world’s cheapest CCS sites.
Overall there are around 30 CCS projects Santos managing director and CEO Kevin
under development in the US, according to the Gallagher said the FID hinged on the Clean
Houston Chronicle. Almost a dozen of these are Energy Regulator issuing an approved meth-
being planned along the Gulf Coast, with Louisi- odology for CCS, because carbon credits
ana increasingly keen to position itself as a CO2 were essential to making the project “stack up
storage hub. Similar geography exists in Texas, economically”.
which would also have extensive aquifers and Taylor welcomed the announcement, telling
depleted oilfields that could potentially be used the Sydney Morning Herald that work on the
for storing CO2. But Texas – the largest CO2 CCS methodology was “progressing rapidly”. He
emitter in the US – has not yet shown the same added: “Australia has a comparative advantage in
state-level enthusiasm as Louisiana to proceed CCS with a number of large geological storage
with wide-scale CCS development. basins. Successful trials like this are important to
the development of CCS in Australia, which will
Australia create jobs and lower emissions.”
When the Australian government unveiled Beyond the energy sector, however, Austral-
its ambitions in late September for a hydrogen ian companies are mulling other ways to use
industry that would feed both domestic and for- CCS’ potential to preserve valuable streams of
eign demand, Canberra also highlighted CCS’ export revenue.
potential in decarbonising the industry. The country’s largest miner, BHP, said last
The process would allow the country’s exten- week that it had entered into a five-year mem-
sive natural gas industry to begin transitioning orandum of understanding (MoU) with China
into the production of carbon neutral, or “clean”, Baowu Steel to study ways to slash the steel sec-
blue hydrogen. This could be sold overseas or tor’s carbon emissions. Under the MoU, BHP
blended in domestic gas pipeline networks, with will invest AUD50mn ($36.6mn) in a feasibility
some industry observers suggesting that current studying for a CCS project at one of the Chinese
renewable gas blends of up to 10% could rise to steelmaker’s largest production sites, as well as
100% hydrogen by 2050. using hydrogen to feed its blast furnaces.
In announcing the government’s technology
roadmap, Australian Energy Minister Angus Middle East
Taylor said AUD18bn ($13.18bn) of funding had Qatar is the world’s biggest LNG exporter and
been earmarked for a portfolio of low-emissions like some of its US rivals, it too is looking to
technologies that included “clean” hydrogen. sequester CO2 at its export facilities. The govern-
Taylor has now urged the local industry to ment revealed in October last year it had a plant
step up its efforts to integrate CCS into their blue in operation capable of capturing some 2.1mn
hydrogen projects in order to deliver on Canber- tpy of CO2. It aims to ramp up the plant’s capac-
ra’s export-orientated goals. ity to 5mn tpy by 2024 and 7mn tpy by 2027, hail-
Taylor was reportedly preparing to deliver ing the project as the largest CCS investment in
a speech to the Australian Hydrogen Confer- the Middle East and North Africa.
ence this week that industry and government Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is also at the
needed to work hand in hand in order to attract forefront of the Middle East’s carbon, capture,
AUD70bn ($51.26bn) worth of investment over utilisation and storage (CCUS) push, with the
the next decade. circular carbon economy firmly in the sights of
“Clean hydrogen has enormous potential to NOCs Saudi Aramco and ADNOC.
be an important part of the shift to lower emis- Aramco has been working on CO2-based
sions,” local daily the Sydney Morning Herald EOR at the ‘Uthmaniyah field in Eastern Prov-
quoted on November 15 Taylor’s planned speech ince. This received a boost from the recent pilot
as stating. project launched with Japan’s Institute of Energy
His reported comments come just weeks after Economics to generate blue ammonia from
Santos revealed that the country was one step hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons, with
closer to its first commercial CCS project. The the resultant CO2 being split between the Jubail
company said on October 22 that it intended to Methanol plant and EOR at ‘Uthmaniyah.
take a FID on its Moomba CCS project by the Meanwhile, ADNOC last week agreed a deal
end of the year. with French super-major Total to explore oppor-
The company said it had successfully pumped tunities in emissions reductions and CCUS.
around 100 tonnes of CO2 into the depleted The Emirati firm has plans to cut greenhouse

P10 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 19•November•2020