Dr Ali Al Meshari General Supervisor of Reservoir Management at Saudi Aramco gives a presentation at a panel session on ‘Carbon Capture and Storage Opportunities in GCC region’ of COP18/CMP8 yesterday. Others from left are Axel Michaelowa, Saif S Al Naimi, Bjorn Dransfeld and Arafat Al Yafie. (Shaival Dalal)
BY MOHAMMAD SHOEB
DOHA: Qatar, the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas (LNG), has pledged of $70m for an R&D project related to carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is part of its efforts to reduce CO2 emissions, a senior official of Qatar Petroleum (QP) said here yesterday at COP18.
The 10-year R&D investment project to explore new storage technologies for CCS is a joint initiative of energy giant Shell, QP and the Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP) in collaboration with Imperial College, London.
“We have already taken a lot of initiatives to reduce carbon footprint. And we are also considering CCS as an alternative to carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reduction. For this, Shell, QP, and QSTP, in collaboration with Imperial College of London are going to invest $70m in R&D over 10 years”, said Saif Saed Al Naimi, Director, HSE Regulations and Enforcement at QP.
Al Naimi added: “Very recently, we received recognition from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for our efforts to successfully reduce over 300 million tonnes of CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Al Shaheen field as part of the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).”
CCS is a relatively latest method of capturing waste CO2 from large point sources, such as fossil fuel power plants and transporting it to an underground storage site where there are least chances of leakage into the atmosphere.
According to a recent report of International Energy Agency (IEA), CCS would account for 28 percent of GHG emission reduction by 2050. While the Intercontinental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its forth assessment report, has said that there will be 40 percent emission reduction through CCS method by 2030 (from 1990 level).
Since 2005, RasGas, through its acid gas re-injection programme, re-injects about one million tonnes of CO2 every year into saline aquifer formations.
Naimi was speaking at a panel discussion on “Carbon Capture and Storage; Opportunities in the GCC region” which was part of a side event of COP18. The other panellists were: Dr Ali Al Meshari, (Saudi Aramco), Arafat Al Yafie (Adnoc, Abu Dahbi) and Axel Michaelowa (Perspective, Climate Change). Born Dransfeld moderated the discussion.
Although Qatar seems to be doing its best to reduce carbon emission levels, but when it comes to dealing with CO2, in relative terms, Qatar has no comparison with UAE. Take the case of Abu Dahbi, it alone has committed over a $1bn to support CO2 related projects.
“Today in Abu Dahbi, we have already committed about $500m on the projects for CSS. And an additional $500m will come in the near future. It is all mainly to support environment”, said Al Yafie.
Presently, there are only 23 active and 53 planned CCS projects worldwide.
Most of the panellists, including the moderator agreed that CCS has a bright future, but like any other technology, it also suffers with many limitations and challenges such as high capital investment, low energy price, complex operation, lack of personnel, risk of leakage and other.
However, they agreed that these challenges can be addressed with the advancement of technology enhancement in feasibility and efficiency.
The Peninsula
