British oil and gas major Shell [SHEL:US], China’s state-owned refiner Sinopec [0386:HK], Chinese steel manufacturer Baowu [600019:CH], and German chemical giant BASF [BAS:GR] have signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to study the feasibility of building an open-source carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) project in the East China region, as reported by Reuters on November 4. Under the MoU, the four parties plan to launch a joint study to assess the technical solutions and develop a commercial model for the project. The study will also explore establishing high-integrity and verified low-carbon product supply chains and propose enabling policies. If successful, the project could capture tens of millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, targeting not only emissions from the parties involved but also industries in the East China region.
The project is intended to offer a flexible, efficient, and integrated decarbonization solution to industrial companies in the East China region. Carbon emissions collected from these enterprises will be shipped to a receiving terminal on CO2 carrier ships, before being transported to onshore and offshore storage sites through short pipelines. Previously, Shell also inked an agreement with state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) [0883:HK] and Exxon Mobil [XOM:US] to explore the feasibility of establishing a CCUS project at sea in China, which could capture 10m tons of CO2 annually. According to Shell, developing CCUS projects in China accords with the firm’s ambition of having a CCUS capacity of at least 25m tons a year by 2035.
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