Carbon Capture : ExxonMobil and Petronas to study carbon capture and storage in Malaysia
The companies will assess the viability of carbon capture projects in select locations offshore Peninsular Malaysia and share subsurface technical and infrastructure data for pipelines, facilities and wells as they evaluate potential projects for the storage, transport and reutilization of captured CO2.
The MoU strengthens a decades-long strategic partnership between ExxonMobil and PETRONAS and has the objective of helping Malaysia reduce emissions and achieve its net-zero ambitions.
“ExxonMobil continues to explore opportunities in Southeast Asia for large-scale carbon capture and storage projects that have the potential to make the greatest impact in the highest-emitting sectors,” said Joe Blommaert, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions.
The MoU with PETRONAS is the ninth carbon capture and storage opportunity that ExxonMobil has announced since establishing its Low Carbon Solutions business in March 2021 to commercialize low-emission technologies. The others are in Houston, Texas; LaBarge, Wyoming; Edmonton, Canada; St Fergus, UK; Fife, UK; Normandy, France; Indonesia; and Russia. These are in addition to previously announced projects in Qatar; Antwerp, Belgium; Rotterdam, Netherlands; and Australia.
Low Carbon Solutions is initially focusing its carbon capture and storage efforts on capturing CO2 from industrial activity that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere, and injecting it into deep underground geologic formations for safe, secure and permanent storage. It is also pursuing strategic investments in biofuels and hydrogen to bring those lower-emissions energy technologies to scale for hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the economy.
The company has an equity share in approximately one-fifth of global CO2 capture capacity and has captured approximately 40 percent of all the captured anthropogenic CO2 in the world.
The International Energy Agency projects that carbon capture and storage could mitigate up to 15% of global emissions by 2040, and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates global decarbonization efforts could be twice as costly without its wide-scale deployment.