Japan, Petronas to discuss storing Japanese CO2 in Malaysian sites

THE Japanese government and Malaysia’s state oil firm Petronas on Wednesday (Sep 27) agreed to discuss the export of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted in Japan to storage sites in Malaysia in a drive to tackle climate change.

Similar talks could eventually take place with other nations in Asia, said Norihiko Saeki, director of the carbon capture and storage (CCS) policy office of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

METI, the state-owned Japan Organisation for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) and Petronas signed a memorandum of cooperation on CCS on Wednesday, with the aim of shipping CO2 from Japan as early as 2028.

“We haven’t set any numerical targets for the amount of CO2 to be transported,” Saeki told reporters after the Asia CCUS Network conference in Hiroshima in western Japan. (CCUS stands for carbon capture, usage and storage.)

First, he said a regulatory framework was needed to enable private companies to make an investment decision on CCS, which removes CO2 emissions from the atmosphere and stores them underground. CCUS projects re-use the emissions, rather than just store them.

Early this year, Japan set a target of annual CO2 storage capacity of between 6 and 12 million tonnes by 2030 under a long-term roadmap for CCS.

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, told the conference in video remarks that there were more than 500 CCUS projects globally, including those in China, Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, but that much more work was needed.

“Even if all these projects see the light of day, they would make up only about a third of what we would like to see,” he said.

One hurdle is a lack of transportation and storage networks for projects, analysts say.

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“Based on planned carbon capture projects, more than 90 million tonnes per annum of CO2 will be shipped by the end of the decade – a volume requiring 48 terminals to handle the import and export of the gas,” Rystad Energy said in a report. REUTERS