Unlocking Asia Pacific’s CCS potential

Key takeaways:

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) can help reduce CO₂ emissions for hard to decarbonize industries.
Asia Pacific is well placed for the development of a CCS industry.
Collaboration is key to developing cross-border emission-reduction solutions like CCS.

News

4 min read

• May 2, 2024

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one of the few proven technologies that can help reduce CO₂ emissions at scale for hard-to-decarbonize industries.

What is CCS?

CCS is a technology that captures CO₂ then transports it for reuse or stores it safely and permanently deep underground.

CCS is considered essential to reducing CO₂ emissions from industries such as steel, cement, chemicals and power generation, which are hard to decarbonize.

We’re an industry leader in CCS, working with governments and industry throughout the Asia Pacific region to help them capture CO₂ at a scale that can make a difference.

Where is CO₂ stored?

Because CO₂ is inert and stable, it can be safely and permanently stored deep underground, well below sources of drinking water, both onshore and under the sea.

Why Asia Pacific?

There are a growing number of CCS projects being evaluated around the world, including in Asia Pacific.

CCS has the potential to enable economic growth while helping to address the risks of climate change. Currently, more than half the global population lives in this region, where CO₂ emissions represent nearly half of the world’s emissions.

There’s also a rapidly growing middle class that drives demand for products – from better housing to cars and electronic goods. So it’s a two-pronged goal: enabling economic growth while reducing emissions. We call it the “and” equation.

The region is well placed for the development of a CCS industry. Click the dots on the map to learn more.

Singapore

An ExxonMobil-Shell consortium has been selected to work with the Government of Singapore as lead developer for a cross-border CCS value chain. This CCS project is capable of capturing and permanently storing at least 2.5 million tons of CO₂ per year by 2030.

Malaysia

ExxonMobil and PETRONAS have signed agreements to outline the next steps for a CCS value chain, which include evaluating identified CO₂ storage fields, developing appropriate commercial frameworks and establishing advocacy plans that support the development of policy for enabling CCS projects.

Indonesia

ExxonMobil and PERTAMINA are advancing their joint evaluation of a CCS hub in the Java Sea. The potential CCS hub could help boost decarbonization in Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region. A recently issued presidential regulation is helping to accelerate Indonesia’s CCS industry by allowing CCS operators to set aside part of their storage capacity for imported CO₂. The governments of Singapore and Indonesia have also recently signed a letter of intent (LOI) to collaborate on cross-border carbon capture and storage.

Australia

ExxonMobil, as part of the Gippsland Basin Joint Venture with Woodside, is examining the potential for CCS in the Gippsland Basin.

Collaboration is key

What makes Asia Pacific unique is the region’s opportunity to work together to develop cross-border emission-reduction solutions like CCS.

Nations such as Japan, South Korea and Singapore have aggressive CO₂ mitigation plans but have limited access to sufficient CO₂ storage within their borders. While countries with traditional oil and gas industries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, have potentially large CO₂ storage opportunities but may not require full use of its storage sites at this time.

This unique regional dynamic offers an opportunity for countries to collaborate to reduce CO₂ emissions in the region, where emitting countries can pay for the use of storage.

We see the potential for CCS hubs and cluster networks, where captured CO₂ is taken from multiple industrial sites, aggregated, then transported and stored. This hub model provides an economy of scale for hard-to-decarbonize industries, such as steel, petrochemicals or cement. The collective effort across the hubs and networks could help accelerate development of new CCS projects.

As Asia Pacific develops its energy transition pathways, CCS, together with hydrogen and other lower-emission solutions, could allow us to play a unique role in meeting the needs of people and the industry, while reducing emissions across hard-to-decarbonize sectors. To achieve progress toward a net-zero future, collaboration among governments, businesses and communities is paramount.