Japanese companies partnering Malaysia's state-owned oil firm Petronas have agreed to develop a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Malaysia, targeting to begin commercial operations by the end of 2028.
Japanese upstream firm Japex, engineering company JGC, shipping firm Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (Kline) and Petronas' subsidiary Petronas CCS Ventures announced on 20 November that they signed a key principal agreement on 22 September.
They will proceed to carry out detailed examinations of business schemes, as well as costs and designs, to build pipelines in Malaysia, liquefied carbon dioxide (CO2) receiving facilities and offshore injection equipment. The partners aim to begin fundamental design of the project by 2024, make a final investment decision by the mid-2020s and to start injection and storage of CO2 at offshore sites by the end of 2028.
They plan to store more than 2mn t/yr of CO2, which will be collected from Malaysia and overseas, including Japan, by the end of 2028, around 5mn t/yr by 2030 and more than 10mn t/yr by the first half of 2030s.
Japex and Petronas started an initial study in January 2022, with JGC and Kline joining in July 2022. The partners explored potential CO2 storage sites, coastal shipping of CO2 and CO2 injection in Malaysia before moving on to more detailed research.
Japan has been looking to Malaysia as a destination for CO2 exports and storage because of its limited domestic storage sites. Japan's trade and industry ministry and state-owned energy agency Jogmec have signed an initial agreement with Petronas to begin discussing a regulatory and general framework on CO2 exports from Japan and storage in Malaysia.
