Page 8 - MEOG Week 46

MEOG COMMENTARY MEOG

be an important part of the shift to lower emis- Oman has long been leading the pack in
sions,” local daily the Sydney Morning Her- terms of EOR and the Sultanate is also develop-
ald quoted on November 15 Taylor’s planned ing a commercial scale hydrogen facility at the
speech as saying. His reported comments come port of Duqm as Muscat seeks to diversify its
just weeks after Santos revealed that the country economy away from oil and gas.
was one step closer to its first commercial CCS To the north, however, flaring remains
project. The company said on October 22 that commonplace in Iraq, though initiatives are
it intended to take a FID on its Moomba CCS ramping up to monetise gas and reduce emis-
project by the end of the year. sions. Meanwhile, it is worth noting that certain
The company said in had successfully international operators developing assets in the
pumped around 100 tonnes of CO2 into the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq have reported
depleted Strzelecki gas field in the Cooper Basin less than 8kg of CO2 equivalent per barrel of oil
as part of the project’s final field trial. Once on equivalent (kgCO2e/boe), far below some of the
stream, the 1.7mn tpy project promises to be one region’s top producers. Aramco for example, last
of the world’s cheapest CCS sites. year reported an upstream carbon intensity of
Santos managing director and CEO Kevin 10.1 kgCO2e/boe.
Gallagher said the FID hinged on the Clean
Energy Regulator issuing an approved meth- Latin America
odology for CCS because carbon credits were Efforts to develop carbon capture and storage
essential to making the project “stack up (CCS) capacity are at a relatively early stage in
economically”. Latin America. The two countries in the region
Taylor welcomed the announcement, telling that show the most promise on this front are
the Sydney Morning Herald that work on the Mexico and Brazil, which have estimated CO2
CCS methodology was “progressing rapidly”. He storage potential of 100bn tonnes and 4 trillion
added: “Australia has a comparative advantage in tonnes respectively. Both have explored their
CCS with a number of large geological storage options and have launched a number of pilot
basins. Successful trials like this are important to projects, but Brazil has made more progress.
the development of CCS in Australia, which will In Mexico, the Energy Ministry suggested in
create jobs and lower emissions.” its 2014 “Technology Roadmap on CCS” that
Beyond the energy sector, however, Austral- the government establish a national CCS strat-
ian companies are mulling other ways to use egy and inventory, as well as a centre for techno-
CCS’ potential to preserve valuable streams of logical research, development and testing. Since
export revenue. then, it has updated the report, identified a num-
ber of research priorities and proposed several
Middle East exploratory projects.
Qatar is the world’s biggest LNG exporter and Nevertheless, the country has not taken
like some of its US rivals, it too is looking to much in the way of action since the 2018 presi-
sequester CO2 at its export facilities. The govern- dential election. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,
ment revealed in October last year it had a plant the populist candidate who won that vote, has
in operation capable of capturing some 2.1mn shelved CCS initiatives, arguing that the Mexi-
tpy of CO2. It aims to ramp up the plant’s capac- can government does not have the funds needed
ity to 5mn tpy by 2024 and 7mn tpy by 2027, hail- to pursue such projects.
ing the project as the largest CCS investment in Meanwhile, Brazil’s national oil company
the Middle East and North Africa. (NOC) Petrobras is looking for ways to integrate
Enhanced oil recovery is also at the forefront CCS into its upstream operations. To this end, it
of the Middle East’s carbon, capture, utilisation has launched Latin America’s only operational
and storage (CCUS) push, with the circular car- CCS scheme: a group of pilot facilities off the
bon economy firmly in the sights of NOCs Saudi coast of Rio de Janeiro.
Aramco and ADNOC. These facilities, located aboard four floating
Aramco has been working on CO2-based production, storage and off-loading (FPSO) ves-
EOR at the ‘Uthmaniyah field in Eastern Prov- sels, capture and inject CO2 into three oilfields in
ince. This received a boost from the recent pilot the offshore Santos basin – Lapa, Lula and Sapin-
project launched with Japan’s Institute of Energy hoá. The CO2 injections help maintain reservoir
Economics to generate blue ammonia from pressure and maximise yields while also curbing
hydrogen produced from hydrocarbons, with emissions.
the resultant CO2 being split between the Jubail The CCS project has been in operation since
Methanol plant and EOR at ‘Uthmaniyah. 2013 and has already injected 10mn tonnes of
Meanwhile, ADNOC last week agreed a deal CO2 into the fields. Petrobras hopes to bring the
with French super-major Total to explore oppor- total up to 40mn tonnes by 2025.
tunities in emissions reductions and CCUS. The The NOC also serves as the head of the Brazil-
Emirati firm has plans to cut greenhouse gas ian CCS Network, which published a CO2 stor-
intensity by 25% by 2030, while its 800,000 tonne age atlas for the country in 2015. The network
per year Al Reyadah CCUS facility is expected has also started work on at least 20 CCS research
to grow rapidly with a target in place to capture projects with the goal of supporting innovations
5mn tonnes per year of CO2 by the same date. in the capture, transport and storage of CO2.™

P8 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 46 18•November•2020