Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) has signed a development agreement with TotalEnergies Carbon Neutrality Ventures (TotalEnergies) and Mitsui and Co Ltd (Mitsui) to jointly pursue a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Malaysia.
In a statement today, the national oil company said the scope of the agreement covered all aspects of CCS development from evaluating maturing depleted field and saline aquifers for storage to identifying potential customers and establishing the necessary commercial and legal frameworks.
It said the partnership also paved the way for the first-of-its-kind integrated CCS solution for industries in the Asia Pacific region.
The agreement was signed by Petronas president and group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz, TotalEnergies SE chairman and CEO Patrick Pouyanne, and Mitsui representative director and senior executive managing officer Toru Matsui.
“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,” Muhammad Taufik said.
Pouyanne said: “TotalEnergies is pleased to join forces with Petronas and Mitsui on a carbon storage hub in Malaysia to support decarbonisation 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.”
Meanwhile, Matsui said CCS is based on existing technologies and an affordable solution to decarbonise the hard-to-abate emitters.
“Mitsui will utilise 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,” he said.
The agreement will take forward the initiatives outlined in the respective memoranda of understanding signed by Petronas, TotalEnergies, and Mitsui in 2022.
Petronas collaborates with industry partners as part of its deliberate steps in accelerating a sustainable portfolio to produce energy responsibly, in line with its Net Zero Carbon Emissions by 2050 Pathway.
