France-based TotalEnergies has signed a deal with Petronas and Mitsui to develop a carbon storage project in Southeast Asia. As per the deal, the partners will evaluate several CO2 storage sites in the Malay Basin, including both saline aquifers and depleted offshore fields.
The firms will focus on developing a CO2 merchant storage service to decarbonise for industrial customers in Asia.
The agreement was signed by Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik, President and Group CEO of Petronas, and Toru Matsui, Senior Executive Managing Officer of Mitsui & Co., on the opening day of the inaugural Energy Asia event in Kuala Lumpur.
The statement pointed out that in Asia, where countries such as South Korea and Japan have pledged Net Zero Commitment in 2050, the development of a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) value chain for hard-to-abate industrial emissions will require a specific regulatory framework and significant investment.
With this agreement, the partnership will study several potential storage sites, determine the best technical means to deliver CO2 to Malaysia from industrial clusters in the region and develop suitable business framework for commercialisation of a carbon storage service in Malaysia.
“TotalEnergies is pleased to join forces with Petronas and Mitsui on a Carbon Storage hub in Malaysia to support decarbonization in Asia. We will bring to the partnership our strong CCS expertise, anchored in Europe with a first integrated project in Norway due to start next year and several other projects that will contribute to meeting our carbon storage capacity target of 10 million tons per year by 2030” s,aid Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies.
“Petronas is proud to collaborate with forward-looking partners such as TotalEnergies and Mitsui in developing solutions through CCS to move us closer towards a lower-carbon future. The strategic partnership demonstrates Petronas’ commitment to position Malaysia as a regional CCS hub to capture opportunities in the energy transition with a focus on reducing the carbon footprint of our operations to continue delivering the energy needs of today,” said Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik, President and Group CEO of Petronas.
“CCS is based on existing technologies and seen as an affordable solution to decarbonise the hard-to-abate emitters. Mitsui will utilize its expertise in the oil and gas upstream activities and extensive business networks to jointly work with Petronas and TotalEnergies to develop a CCS value chain project in Malaysia. Through the development of CCS business globally, Mitsui will contribute to creating an eco-friendly society,” said Toru Matsui, Representative Director, Senior Executive Managing Officer of Mitsui & Co.
