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This article was first published on Rigzone here
Australian company Santos has announced entry into the front-end engineering and design (FEED) phase for the proposed Bayu-Undan carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Timor-Leste.
The Bayu-Undan CCS project could potentially permanently store up to 10 million tons of carbon dioxide per annum, equivalent to about 1.5 percent of Australia’s carbon emissions each year.
The project has the potential to be the largest CCS project in the world and one of the many that will be critical to helping the world meet its climate goals. The IEA Roadmap to Net-Zero by 2050 envisages carbon capture, utilization, and storage growing to 7.6 billion tons of CO2 per year by 2050 from around 40 million tons per year today.
The Bayu-Undan FEED work will include engineering and design for additional CO2 processing capacity at Darwin LNG plus repurposing of the Bayu-Undan facilities for carbon sequestration operations after gas production ceases.
Santos is working closely with the Timor-Leste regulator ANPM towards the necessary agreements and regulatory framework that will be required for the project.
Santos Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Gallagher, said taking FEED builds on the growing momentum for the regional carbon reduction project.
“Located in Timor-Leste with potential CO2 sources from Australian gas projects and other industries in the Northern Territory, Bayu-Undan CCS could be the start of a valuable new carbon services industry for Timor-Leste. It would create new jobs and a new revenue stream for the nation once gas production from Bayu-Undan ceases.
“Entry into the FEED phase has strong support from our five joint venture partners headquartered in Japan, Korea, and Italy. And last month, a meeting of the Timor-Leste and Australian Prime Ministers included a commitment by Australia to establish an LNG Partnership Fund to deepen links between Australia and Timor-Leste in gas development and trade, including in the use of carbon capture and storage.
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“With about 80 percent of the world’s energy still coming from hydrocarbons, including natural gas, and new supply investment still required to meet the world’s ongoing demand for these products, it is essential that we decarbonize their production. CCS offers a large-scale, low-cost, and permanent way to progressively make these fuels cleaner. CCS will also enable new clean fuels industries such as hydrogen which will dramatically reduce not only Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but Scope 3 emissions as well,” Gallagher said