A consortium comprising of Japan’s Eneos [5020:JP], JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration, and trading house Mitsubishi Corp [9058:JP] has announced a partnership with a subsidiary of Malaysia’s national oil company Petronas [PNAGF:US] on a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project spanning two countries, as reported by Nikkei Asia on March 2. The companies plan to separate and capture around 3 million tons of CO2 emissions annually from industrial areas around Tokyo Bay, including an Eneos refinery, and transport the captured CO2 to Malaysia for storage in depleted oil fields. Expected to commence operations by fiscal 2030, the project has the potential to eventually increase the capturing capacity to 6 million tons a year.

The project is known as one of the largest CCS initiatives planned in Japan, which aims to capture and sequester 120 million to 240 million tons of CO2 annually by 2050. However, overseas cooperation is essential to achieve this ambitious target for a lack of suitable storage sites within Japan. The alliance formed by the companies will research CCS in various aspects, including necessary equipment, transport logistics, storage site development, business feasibility, and relevant legislation in both Japan and Malaysia. According to a joint statement by the four companies, they will leverage their knowledge of oil and gas development and experience in building energy value chains to study the feasibility of accumulating massive emissions from Japan and storing them in Malaysia.

Sources:

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Environment/Malaysia-s-Petronas-and-Japanese-partners-team-on-carbon-storage

https://www.offshore-technology.com/news/petronas-ccs-agreement-japanese-consortium/?cf-view