Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina and ExxonMobil have signed an agreement at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia to progress their regional carbon capture and storage (CCS) hub for domestic and international CO2.
The project has a geologic storage potential of up to 3bn t of CO2, according to ExxonMobil. Pertamina and ExxonMobil indicated earlier in May that their partnership would involve studying CCS and carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies in three oil and gas fields — namely the Widuri field in west Java, and the Peciko and Badak fields in east Kalimantan.
The latest agreement defines the project's next steps, which include concept-select, pre-initial engineering, and a subsurface work programme.
"By providing a large-scale storage solution for hard-to-decarbonise sectors, our companies will support Indonesia's growing economy through low-carbon investments, creating job opportunities and adding revenues for the country," said ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions' president Dan Ammann.
The Indonesian government is also working to establish regulatory frameworks to support CCS, and to initiate discussions with other governments in the region. "This milestone is a solid foundation for Indonesia to systematically work toward our net-zero target by 2060 or sooner," said Indonesia's coordination minister for maritime affairs and investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.
But the country is still heavily reliant on fossil fuels, and its energy sector's CO2 emissions totalled around 600mn t in 2021, according to the IEA. Indonesia is currently the world's ninth-largest emitter of CO2 from fuel combustion.
CCS is therefore increasingly being considered as a solution to reduce emissions, as the country does not yet have a developed renewables sector. Pertamina has partnered Japanese engineering company Chiyoda to study the capture, transportation and storage of by-product CO2. Pertamina also tied up with Japanese trading house Mitsui to study the development of a CCUS project, with commercial operations targeted during 2025-29.
